Resurfacing
by Mariel Nightstalker
Summary: Depressed and without direction in his life, Harry Potter goes on a sabbatical that leads him to the quiet town of Forks, Washington. CROSSOVER FEMSLASH SLASH Jasper Hale/Harry Potter
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I received a lot of requests to write another Twilight/Harry Potter crossover, so here you all go! Also, I'm sure some of you will be pleased to know that I am reading the second Twilight book now.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Twilight; they belong to JK Rowling and Stephanie Meyer, respectively. I make no profit from this.

CHAPTER 1

The ship swayed slightly, and his drink followed the motion of the waves, sloshing over the brim occasionally and staining his shirt cuff. Not that it mattered anymore; anyone who would have cared was too drunk to mind by this point.

Feeling sick to his stomach, he looked around at all the happy faces, his nearest and dearest all rejoicing in that strange high that comes from being suddenly released from prison, from having overwhelming pressure suddenly removed.

The aftermath of an injury often yielded the same feeling, and Harry knew damn well that the Wizarding world was not as well-of as they believed themselves to be just because the most immediate threat was now eradicated. Voldemort might be dead, but the same unwieldy economy, deep-set prejudices, and poor leadership were still there, crippling them.

It was strange, he supposed, that while everyone he'd fought for was overjoyed and celebrating their new freedom, he'd never felt more suffocated. He set down his drink on the bar top, number four if his fuzzy memory served him like it should, and braced himself for the wobbly journey to the door.

He had to carefully squeeze himself between Rita Skeeter and Minister Shacklebolt, who was no doubt telling her things that he would regret in the morning, in order to get outside. She grasped for his sleeve clumsily, movements dulled by alcohol, but he slipped through her manicured nails and managed to push the door open.

"Mr. Potter, if I could just have a moment of your time-"

It slammed shut behind him, cutting her off, pushed firmly back into place by the powerful wind. Bending his head slightly in order to alleviate some of the pressure it was putting on his poor head, he circled the walkway to a side with far less exposure and settled into a lawn chair.

The idea to take a two-day celebratory cruise was Hermione's fault, since she said that it would minimize the damage to important buildings should some of them prove to be rowdy drunks, and keep them from being mobbed in the streets. He had to admit that it had been a good idea at first, but now all he wanted to do was throw up from the ship's gentle rocking.

Resting his elbows on his knees, he rested his head on his palms and stared out into the blackness straight ahead of him. After several peaceful minutes of this, he frowned, noticing something.

There was no line distinguishing the sea from the sky.

Craning his neck back, puzzled, he perceived that this phenomenon was because there was no moon and the stars were obscured by a thick black cloud.

The door banged again, and he started, looking down. Someone was standing there by the door he'd just exited minutes before, outlined in gold from the light spilling out of the windows of the lounge. Looking carefully, he saw that her hair was copper-colored and groaned quietly.

She looked in his direction, and stood up straighter. Hips swaying from her high heels, she approached his hiding place.

There was no use trying to curl into himself now and hope that the shadows would protect him: she knew he was there.

"Hi, Harry." She greeted, somehow managing to not slur her words.

He just nodded, hoping to convey through silence that he didn't want company. She didn't take the hint, and actually had the nerve to sit next to him on the deck chair.

Funny, he hadn't noticed that it was big enough for two, but then, neither of them could be remotely described as heavy after what they'd been through. Food wasn't something you threw around when in the middle of a very low-budget war, after all.

"It's nice out here." She murmured, sipping her champagne.

He idly wondered how many of those she'd had.

"Yeah…"

Unexpectedly, she leaned her head against his shoulder, her hair-spray tickling his nose with its scent of coconut and pineapples. It smelled too fake to be pleasant and the under-smell of cosmetic chemicals made him wrinkle his nose. "This is nice too, right, Harry?"

Sometimes, you had to play dumb for your own safety. "I don't know what you mean."

With a jerk, she pulled away from him, her neck making a snapping noise. "What do you mean, you don't know?" her outraged screech echoed against his hyper-sensitized ears and he groaned, rubbing his temples.

"Ginny, if you want to fight, can we please do this tomorrow, long after I've recovered from whatever it is that the twins put in that punch?"

Her eyes softened in the golden gloom, and her clammy hand found its way into his. She stroked his fingers, settling down again beside him. He made an effort to move away slightly, but there was no where to go in their cramped chair. From the way she stiffened, she must have noticed, but didn't comment on it.

"I'm sorry, Harry. I didn't mean to snap at you." She reached up and tucked a piece of his hair behind his ear, kissing his cheek and then, after a moment of hesitation where she held her breath, his jaw. Her mouth was sticky and clung unpleasantly to his skin.

He started. "Ginny, what are you doing? What about…what about Neville?"

Exasperated, she knocked back the rest of her champagne and set the glass on the ground. "Harry, I like the chase as much as any other girl, but for Merlin's sake, can you at least stop pretending that you don't want this on tonight of all nights?" Her small hand went back up to his hair, fiddling with the stubborn curls at the base of his neck. "I know that you need to relax as much as I do, so why don't we…help each other, and figure things out in the morning? Neville won't begrudge me one night with someone else."

He'd never felt sicker to his stomach, but he hid it with an expression of uncertainty so he wouldn't hurt her feelings too much. "Ginny, I don't think- well, I'd feel horribly guilty…"

She stood abruptly, crossing the line of distance between the shelter of the wall and the shadows it provided to the railing that ringed the ship, resting her forearms against it. Her shoulders gleamed, glossy in the golden light and tinged slightly with the red hue reflecting off of her silk dress, as they rose and fell with her sigh.

"Fine, we'll stop discussing this, since you're going to be so pig-headed about it."

"Ginny, I you know I didn't mean it like that."

She shuddered. "Just leave me alone for a little bit, Harry. I'll talk to you later- maybe I'll see you too." There was a hopeful note in her voice that he ignored. What she wanted from him was not something he was going to give her, even if she wasn't seeing Neville.

He sat still for a moment longer, waiting in case she was going to say anything else, before rising unsteadily and heading for the section allotted to the stairs. Descending them proved more dangerous than he'd thought, and he tripped twice, bruising his shins painfully before making it below deck.

If Ginny was going to sulk over him refusing to intrude upon her relationship with Neville, then so be it. One day she would learn not to be so childish and selfish.

The maze of hallways lined with numbered doors seemed to swirl around him with nightmarish intensity, but he moved with dogged determination, searching for his room number.

Five minutes of what felt like going in circles later, he saw it. Room number 109, right next to room number 110, which belonged to Ginny. On second thought, maybe going to his room wasn't the best idea.

Shrugging, he unlocked his room and stumbled inside, shutting the door behind him. It glanced off of the hinges, swinging back at him to nearly knock him over by smacking him in the back. Growling in pain, he slammed it closed and visited the W.C.

He exited a few minutes later, pulling his stiff dress shirt over his head and looking around at the room with a sneer of disgust. It was large for a ship cabin, with a bed that could conceivably fit two and a half people, a small closet with a stand next to it for his trunk, and a sofa that did not look nearly as uncomfortable as it was. The cabin was also incredibly stuffy from being uninhabited for so many hours.

The window opened silently when he cranked the pull, and the wind that came in was cold enough to make him hurry into his sleep clothes, although it did make quick work of removing the unpleasant stale smell that the air had taken on.

Over-large though it was, the bed seemed harmless enough and very welcoming in his current unsteady state of mind; stumbling towards it, he lay down, pillowing his head in his arms and staring up at the low, oppressive ceiling. If he hadn't opened the window, he would probably have a minor attack of claustrophobia.

Feeling drowsier by the minute, he let his hands come down and rolled onto his side, seeing the metal edges of his suitcase glint in the light of his electrical clock, courtesy of the cruise staff.

His eyes slid shut and he breathed deeply in and out, relaxing fully for the first time in years.

000

The wind was harsh and cold against her skin, threatening to bowl her over at any moment if she were to stop clenching her muscles in resistance to its forces. Her shoulders were covered with goose pimples and she was regretting not bringing her wrap out here with her. At the time, she'd been more concerned with looking attractive than being warm.

She choked on her tears. What did looking attractive matter, now? He didn't want her. She would have preferred it if he'd outright slapped her in the face rather than remained himself to the very end, kind and considerate of what others would feel if they did what she wanted so desperately. He'd considered everyone's feelings, except hers; what she felt or wanted didn't seem to matter very much to him.

Why couldn't he just be hers for once? Just for one night, she wanted the right to say 'mine' when she looked at him.

Ginny swiped at her face, trying to wipe away the annoying little-girl tears, knowing that her hand would have bits of black mascara and red smears from her lipstick on it now but not caring enough to pull out her handkerchief.

Biting her lip, she let her tears dry themselves out. There was no concept of time for her now- for all she knew, she could have been standing there, alone and cold, for a hundred years. Finally, when the last droplet of misery left her, she squared her shoulders.

There was always the chance that she could still wear him down, not to mention that one's morals are far easier to circumvent when both tired and tipsy. With her new plan in mind and tentatively smiling, she went downstairs without bothering to retrieve her wrap from the lounge.

Finding her room was hard, but she persisted and found it quickly enough. She paused in front of room 109, Harry's room, breathless and shaking from the urge to knock on his door.

She pulled herself away, reached down the front of her dress for where she'd tucked the key into her brassiere, and attempted to stick it into the lock. On her fifth exasperated try, she penetrated the lock and opened the door.

It slammed shut behind her, trapping her inside her confining room. She flipped on the lamp and went into the bathroom. For a moment she forgot how to make the lights work inside of it, but then she remembered the strange little 'switch'.

Flipping it on, she jumped. Her face looked more like a clown's than her own, and she grimaced as she pulled out some toilettes.

Once her face was safely made-up again and she'd let down her hair, arranging the artificial curls so that they would enticingly emphasize her neck and jaw-line, she dove into her psyche for her natural courage.

The telephone was harder to use than she'd thought it would be, but she managed to figure out which button would get her the staff and asked to be connected to room 109. While she waited, she met her own eyes in the mirror on the closet door, trying out a coy smile.

It rang once, twice…three times, and he still hadn't answered. She worried her lip and then quickly stopped when it smudged her lipstick. Had he fallen asleep?

He picked up. "Hello? Who is this?"

"It's me, its Ginny…can I come over? Please?" she winced, hearing the edge of desperation that she wanted to hide leak into her voice.

He sighed. "I'm not alone."

She stared at herself, unseeing and numb from head to toe. And then, not feeling the movement but seeing it reflected back at her, she disconnected the line, setting the device that had delivered the death blow to her years-long infatuation into the cradle.

Her dress whispered to her as she fell against the door and slid down the wall. Pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them, she felt the sobs rise up for the second time that night.

It struck her with the swiftness of a serpent. There was a way to make this horrible feeling go away, this feeling of being unwanted and uncared for by the man she loved. There was even a way accessible to her that was nice and easy, and near by.

Crawling to her bed, she pulled herself up onto it and opened the drawer of the bed-side table. Inside it were some tablets, a thoughtful gift from Hermione, which suppressed sea-sickness. When Hermione gave them to her, she warned her to be careful to take only one every 24 hours or else suffer the consequences.

She took the metal foil packet with her into the bathroom and filled the glass waiting for her on the counter with water from the tap. Slowly, carefully, she removed all five of the remaining tablets from it, lining them neatly up on the counter.

They were large and bitter to swallow, but the water helped and it was over so soon.

The dizziness, this time not only from the champagne, set in and she swayed precariously, gripping the counter tightly with shaking hands.

There didn't seem to be enough air in her cabin anymore, and she realized that it was not where she wanted to die. Pulling up her skirts, she lifted her dress over her head and stuffed it clumsily under the sink. She stood there in nothing but her white slip and nodded approvingly at herself.

White was an appropriate color to wear when dead, she'd always thought.

Pulling off her shoes was harder though, and she decided to leave on. Exiting the bathroom, she groped at her door, feeling more unstable by the second, finally wrenching it open.

The hall was stuffy and stale as well.

Groaning from the sudden throbbing in her temples and pain in her stomach, she made her way down the hall, bypassing the stairs.

Pressing the button for the elevator, she wrapped her arms around herself and leaned against a gilt trash can, shivering. The elevator made a chiming sound when it arrived, and she was grateful to see that it was empty.

Soft music played as she rose the brief distance to the top, and it opened in a small lobby outfitted with two sofas identical to the ones she was sure were in every cabin. To her blurring vision, they looked closer to the color of vomit than dark green.

The door awaited her, and then the glorious wind, frigid as ice, hit her. She smiled broadly and laughed, swaying over to the railing once more.

She was only two feet away when she tripped, her shoe caught in a section of metal grating that she'd been unable to see. All she could see now was the black of the sky, and the black of the sea; all she felt was the pain working its way through her body and the wind that numbed it.

All in all, dying wasn't nearly as unpleasant as she'd been expecting, but she knew that she couldn't let it happen while sprawled on the floor like a drunken whore. Getting up was harder than falling, but she managed and made it to the railing.

Gripping anything, much less firmly enough to hoist her sluggish body up, became an Olympic struggle. She shimmied over the top somehow and onto the thick glass that served as an extra protection against fools like her who happened to get around the railing.

She flung herself off the edge and into the sea.

000

End chapter 1

Review if you like it or have an opinion/question.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

He'd known that his lie was cruel the moment he said those three words into the telephone receiver, but he was at his wit's end. He just didn't want to deal with it anymore, and short of outing himself from his comfortable closet, there was no other way that came to mind other than insinuating that there was someone else in his life.

He was not expecting to wake up the next morning, at the ridiculously early hour of 11 a.m., to Hermione pounding on his door with her fists.

Rolling out of bed, he banged his already-bruised shins against his trunk when he lost his balance and groaned. "I'm awake!" He growled, surprised at how much his throat hurt. He hadn't had _that _much to drink.

Wrenching the door open, he got an enthusiastic fist to the chest that knocked the wind out of him. "Oh good god! It hurts!" He clutched his torso, moaning in pain while Hermione apologized. His ribs were cracked several times rather badly over the course of the war, and even though they'd been healed as many times as they'd been broken or shattered, a repaired bone is never quite as strong as one that's remained untouched.

"I am _so _sorry, Harry! Are you alright?"

"Damn, you hit hard." He wheezed, patting her back to show that he was okay, figuratively speaking. "Where's the fire?"

Her face twisted as if in pain, and he gasped. that was her 'I've got really bad news' face. "It's Ginny."

His stomach was suddenly full of lead. He knew that what was about to come out of her mouth was probably his fault somehow. "What about Ginny? What happened?" He asked softly.

"She…she's gone, Harry!" Hermione started to cry, all of the pent-up pressure from the war, hidden last night by the merry-making, wracked through her at once. He had to grab hold of her waist and pull her into his cabin.

Moving her slowly and carefully while she cried towards his bed, since the sofa would be no comfort to anyone, he sat her down. "Hermione, I'm going to be right back. I'm getting you some water and some tissues, okay?

She nodded shakily, hugging herself briefly before lying down and grabbing his pillow.

While he was in the bathroom, hurriedly filling the glass and then another for himself, he heard her say something.

"What was that?" He asked, keeping his voice steady to help calm her down faster. She drank the water quickly before answering.

"We searched the whole ship, and…and they found her body c-caught on something underwater, down close to the rudders." She sniffled and blew her nose. "I won't lie to you- I saw this coming. She's been so unstable for so long, even with everything that Neville's done for her. I just wish I knew why she would do it now, what set her off so completely."

He bit his lip and looked away, sipping his water. His throat and everything else comprising his body ached.

"Harry?"

Fuck. She was too perceptive; she always had been and she always would be one of the hardest people to lie to.

"Harry, do you know something about this?"

There was no use trying to lie now, not to her. "I might have an idea. Last night, I wanted some air, so I went out onto the deck. Ginny, um, joined me some time later and we talked for a bit. We had a bit of a tiff, as we always seemed to do, and I went to bed."

"And then what happened, Harry?" Her voice wasn't hard, just tired. "You can tell me; I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to. What did you two fight about?"

"She tried, again, to pursue me, and I said no." Hermione nodded, gesturing for him to continue, "and then she called me some time later, and asked to come into my room in order to continue trying to-"

"Get in your pants, essentially."

He coughed. "Yeah, pretty much."

"And then what happened?" She coaxed, rolling the empty glass in her hands.

"I don't remember my exact words, since she woke me up and I was quite fuzzy in the head at the time, but I did give the impression that I was with someone else to try and make her give it up. She hung up after that, and I fell back asleep." His voice cracked, "I wasn't expecting to wake up and find out that she's…"

"I know." She whispered, taking his hand and squeezing it. "I don't think it's quite sunk in yet, even though I'm going to have to leave soon because I don't like the thought of leaving Ron alone right now. I can't imagine how Neville must be feeling."

Harry choked. This was partially his fault, somehow, but he wasn't going to be a weak child and let himself get bogged down with grief when he should be helping to support others as they handled this blow. Losing Ginny to the war would have been infinitely easier for her parents to handle than this.

"You should go back to Ron, and I'll go see if I can do anything for Neville. Do you remember which room he was staying in?"

"Um…oh, yeah, he's in 118." Hermione rolled her eyes. "Mrs. Weasley made sure that Neville and Ginny weren't in the same room or close to each other, even though Ginny obviously wasn't some virgin."

Harry had to laugh, though it was touched with hysteria. "Okay, off we go then. We'll regroup at lunch in the Emerald room if we can get away?"

She nodded. "That sounds like a plan, boss."

They went their separate ways, Hermione in a shirt that was almost painfully Ron's and Harry still wearing his sleep clothes and barefoot.

He took a deep breath before knocking on Room 118.

No one answered for several and he started to fear the worst. He tried the door handle, and, surprisingly, it opened. He stepped cautiously inside. "Neville? It's me, Harry. Are you in here?"

Now that he was inside, he could clearly hear the shower running. Sighing with relief, he rapped on the bathroom door with his knuckles. There was no answer, but he supposed that the water was drowning it out.

He opened the door, and steam billowed out. Flushed now, he looked around the bathroom, seeing no one standing up in the shower. His gaze drifted lower and, through the opaque shower curtain, he could see the dim outline of Neville's bulky shoulders and long legs, half-hidden by the shadow provided by the toilet.

The impression of Neville was shaking slightly, and he could hear muffled sobbing beneath the roar of the shower-head. It was on to full blast, and probably as hot as it could go, judging from the massive amounts of steam still billowing through the room.

"Neville?"

The shower-curtain was slick with condensation on both sides and slippery to grasp. He pushed it aside and stepped into the shower, heedless of his clothes.

Neville didn't look up from where his empty eyes were fixed on the drain until Harry gently pushed him several inches to one side so that he could sit beside him. His brown eyes skimmed over Harry, and he croaked,

"You're getting all wet, Harry."

"I know." Harry shrugged, and then boldly wrapped an arm around his grieving friend's shoulders. "How long have you been in here?"

"Ever since I found out that she's gone. I thought I was fine with it, that I could accept it and get over it with dignity, so I went about my morning routine the same as always…except, well, half-way through washing my hair, I just kind of went blank."

Harry rubbed his wet shoulder, massaging the muscle with his fingertips. If he hadn't been Neville's room mate for years, he would have been much more embarrassed about sitting with a naked man on the floor of a shower. "Did you fall and hurt yourself?"

Neville shook his head slowly. "No, but I did get soap in my eyes."

He laughed softly, and Harry joined in, smoothing back the longer bits of his hair that had plastered themselves across his forehead and into his eyes.

"Harry, I want to ask you something, and I want you to tell me the truth."

"Of course. Ask me anything you like."

He leaned his face towards Harry's and met his eyes for the second time that day. "Was there anything physical between you and Ginny? I'm not going to beat you up or anything, because that wouldn't solve anything at all, I just need to know."

"She kissed my cheek last night."

Neville blinked, and then cracked a small smile. He lightly touched Harry's cheek, and Harry had to fight down a blush. This was ridiculous! He didn't like Neville like that…he was just touch-starved.

Without warning, Neville bent his head so that they were practically nose-to-nose and asked quietly, sounding like the sweet-hearted boy that was so much stronger than Harry in so many ways, "Which one?"

"This one." Harry indicated, deciding to humor him. He cared too much about his friend to deny him his wishes on this morning of all mornings. Neville bent his head further and kissed where Harry pointed.

"There. Now I think I feel a little bit better." He sighed, sounding almost happy, hugging his knees.

Harry looked at him strangely. "Not that I minded, since you're not bad-looking-" Neville laughed, "but why did you do that?"

"I wanted to touch something that she'd touched, possibly the last person she did before she…"

"Oh."

They were quiet, and then Neville spoke up, smiling, "You have cheeks like a baby. Don't you have facial hair, yet?"

"Oh, go fuck yourself, Neville! That was below the belt."

Neville just laughed at him, and Harry couldn't bring himself to be genuinely irritated. "Hey, at least you have a belt right now. I'm starting to feel all exposed."

"Nonsense! There's no one here to see you but little old me; you could sprawl out spread-eagle for all that I'll care."

Neville started to spread himself out, extending one leg completely. Harry shrieked, "Hey! I was kidding! I don't want to see your junk first thing in the morning, what with the way my head is feeling and the new bruises Hermione gave me."

He got splashed with some of the water accumulating on the floor of the shower. "I'm offended. I'll have you know that my junk is quite shapely. Everyone blessed enough to see it says so!"

Harry groaned. "Oh god, please stop. I don't need those mental images."

Neville settled down again, and sighed. "I'm not going to get over this one easy, Harry. I really loved her, you know. I'm not the most passionate person when it comes to love and snogging in public and that sort of thing, but I really cared about her and I just wanted her to be happy."

"And now you feel like you've let her down." Harry finished for him quietly.

"Yes…"

Harry sat up straighter and swiftly kissed Neville's cheek in return. "Don't feel that way. If anyone has a right to feel guilty, it's me. I think I might have been the one to make her truly give up on living."

Neville sagged, unwrapping one arm from around his legs to sling it around Harry's neck. "Harry, how about we make ourselves a deal?"

"Sure. I'm game for that." Harry was little bit nervous at how well Neville took that comment of his, but who was he to look a gift horse in the mouth? Neville could easily snap his neck if he got angry enough.

"If I don't blame myself for something that was clearly her choice, then you can't either."

Harry tried to pull back, realizing where this was going. "Neville, I-"

"You nothing; I don't want to hear you say the same excuses out loud that have been going through my mind all morning in this miserable little shower. Say yes." When Harry didn't answer right away, he lightly touched his nose, stroking the tip with his finger. "Come on, don't be an idiot. If you won't say yes, then I'm not leaving this shower until you do."

Harry groaned. "Prick. Fine! Yes. I'll agree to this."

Neville beamed at him like a proud parent. "Good. And by agreeing to that, you have also agreed to the fine print, which basically entails you coming to me when you get down about it and being receptive to me coming to you when I have the same problem." He chuckled. "Not that you wouldn't have done that anyway, but, well, you know."

"God, you're so nice it's impossible." Harry grumbled.

"Thanks. Do you want to go get something to eat? I doubt I can stomach anything just yet, since I can't seem to find mine, but they'll have coffee there and it'll help our poor abused heads."

"Yeah, alright. but you wait until I get out of here before standing up, okay?"

"Ha! Prude!"

"Shut up." Harry replied calmly, standing up and snagging one of the towels folded neatly on the rack above the toilet. "I just wouldn't be able to keep my hands off of you if you did decide to flash me."

Neville whistled. "Whoa, you're getting all graphic on me, Harry. I'm almost tempted to flash you now just to see what you'll do."

Harry sent him an amused look over one shoulder. "I'm leaving the bathroom now, Neville, before you put the moves on me."

He left the bathroom to the sound of his friend laughing at him, and permitted himself a private smile. He was happy that Neville would be alright, even though he wasn't sure that he would be able to keep their pact intact.

000000

End chapter 2


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Ron was as pale as the tablecloth, and hadn't touched anything on his plate. He hadn't even had some water, despite Hermione's urging. "Ron, I swear, you are just going to make yourself sicker. You're never going to recover from that alcohol if you don't give your body something to re-hydrate itself with."

He didn't react other than to blink slowly and grip the tablecloth until it bunched up a little. His girlfriend watched this display of defiance impassively before shrugging it off. "Okay, fine."

She kissed his cheek and took a sip of her own water, looking out the window at the blue water passing sedately by their wide window. Harry sat on her other side, picking at a plate of assorted vegetables. They weren't his favorite choice to eat, but his health was too unstable for him to just live off of nasty meat and bread anymore. It was time for him to ingest more vitamins than his digestive system knew what to do with!

He chewed miserably on a slice of zucchini, avoiding Neville's eyes for entirely different reasons than one would suspect someone in his situation to be avoiding someone's eyes. Neville was _laughing _at him, albeit silently.

If he let himself drift that far into the dangerous section of mind that was always a bit on the wonky side, he'd say that Neville's decidedly unwholesome meal of fish and chips was laughing at him too.

He gave into his impulse and turned to stick his tongue out at him, just in time for Mrs. Weasley to come through the glass doors, her face flushed and red-eyed from crying. Guilt rose up, freezing his good mood. What right did he have to be so damn cheerful when there were people on this boat who'd just lost a child?

Neville looked in the direction that he had, paled, and stood up to pull out a chair for her, which she sank into gratefully, patting his arm. "Thank you, dear." Her wavered like an elderly woman's and it made Harry's heart ache.

Lunch passed in silence, undisturbed except by the few shy people actually eating and the exaggerated movements of the boat as it docked.

Half an hour later, Harry departed the Emerald Room with a nod to everyone who happened to look up when he stood, and headed straight for his cabin to pack his belongings.

When he came to his room, he spied Ginny's room beside his and swallowed. He was going to at least _try _to keep it together.

00000

The Burrow's atmosphere felt very different now, even though Ginny hadn't been at home for quite some time before her death. The funeral was last week, with a closed casket and some stilted speeches from distant family that never seemed to care before that day, all of which made Mrs. Weasley cry harder.

They, Ron, Harry, and Hermione, were in the kitchen, with Hermione making some kind of soup and Harry alternating between pacing idly and chopping ingredients for her.

"How is he?" Harry whispered into Hermione's ear, glancing over at Ron. He was eating now, at least, and starting to get back some of his color, but you could never be sure with things like this. As they watched, he shredded another piece off of his biscuit and placed it in his mouth, staring out of the window into the late summer sunshine with a vague look in his eyes; it was a lot better than watching him stuff his face with everything in reach.

Hermione shrugged. "He stopped crying in his sleep a couple of nights ago, which is good, but he's still really upset. Before he went to Hogwarts and met us, Ginny and him were best friends and told each other everything, which is more than can be said for our friendships."

Harry nodded, chewing the inside of his cheek. "And as for the rest of the family? How are they handling it?"

"They're getting there. It's going to take time, but they are recovering. Don't take this the wrong way, honey, but I think it helps that you weren't around very much this past week. Speaking of which, how did things go at the Ministry or wherever you were?"

"I was at the Ministry trying to arrange proper living arrangements for me because I don't want to live off of other people or in hotel rooms forever, but they've been rather stubborn about it. All they do is talk about things like security and blood wards." He sighed. "I see your point about me being away, though, but how much do they know about the thing with Ginny and I?"

"Well, she was never very subtle about it, even when she was with Neville, so there is very little that they don't know. Ron hasn't said anything negative about you, and I know that he still loves you, but being reminded of one of the things that might have driven her to do what she did is painful in any situation."

Harry sighed. "Alright, I can understand that; in the vein of not making a nuisance of myself, I am considering going with Luna to America, because right now that looks like one of my few options."

Hermione dropped her ladle into the pot and had to fish it out with her tasting fork. "Isn't America kind of, well, far?"

"Yes, but right now I can either go with Luna while she researches whatever she desires and have a holiday doing so, or I can stay here and gradually give into the pressure to get a nice, steady desk job at the Ministry. I hate to sound trite or immature, but I'm just not ready to settle down yet."

She gave him an almost mournful look. "Alright, if it'll make you happy, then I won't object."

He bit his lip and then squeezed her shoulder. "I don't want to go without hearing your opinion first, though."

"Try this soup for me, first. Do you think that it needs more body to it, or more salt?"

She placed the spoon at his mouth and he accepted it, swallowing her concoction. Surprised, he smiled at her. "You've gotten better at this cooking thing. I think that all it needs is just the tiniest bit of salt."

"Well, thank you, Harry." She smiled over at Ron suddenly, and Harry looked and saw that the third part of their little trio was looking at them with actual interest.

"Can I try some too?" He rasped.

"Of course love. Do you mind using the same spoon that Harry did?"

He shrugged. "Not at all… It's nice to see you, too, Harry; where've you been hiding all this week?"

Harry laughed. "If you can call trying to convince the Ministry that I'm no longer a child in need of a hand to hold 'hiding', then that's where I've been. You're looking well."

Ron smiled faintly. "Thanks. I feel a lot better."

"That's good."

They were quiet, and Hermione carefully balanced the spoonful of hot soup over to her boyfriend, blowing on it so it wouldn't utterly destroy his mouth when he swallowed it. His face brightened after he tasted it. "I agree with Harry. It's really good."

"Great! Now I know that he wasn't lying to me so I wouldn't get offended and smack him."

"Oi! I would never lie to you!" Harry protested, knowing full well that he would. There are some things best kept secret, after all. "Now, Ron, what do you think about me going with Luna to America for a bit, until she gets bored with it? I don't like the idea of her going by herself; she can defend herself fine, but when it comes to literal common sense she's not too bright."

"I second that." Hermione piped up, already adding the pinch of salt necessary to make her soup perfect. "It's why I've decided to support you, Harry."

"Well, if Hermione supports it, then so do I."

"Oh, come on, Ron, that's not a good enough reason! No offense, 'Mione."

She waved a hand. "None taken; I quite agree."

Ron just groaned. "You two are impossible. Fine! I, Ron Weasley, do support of my own volition and will one Harry Potter's trip to America. Satisfied?"

Harry bent and kissed his cheek jokingly. "I've never been more proud!"

"Oh, come off it. Don't you have travel plans to be making, not to mention letting Luna know that you're going along with her? I heard that she's leaving the day after tomorrow, so I'd hurry if I was you." Ron muttered the last bit, some signs that he would miss Harry finally seeping through and staining his words.

"I'll leave after dinner and have it worked out by tomorrow. Is Luna joining us tonight?"

Hermione shrugged, having rejoined the conversation after placing a preserving spell on her soup. It was only four o'clock in the afternoon and they didn't need to eat yet. "I thought she was, but you never know with Luna."

They shared a laugh.

"If she does come, then I'll let her know in private, see what she says, and then announce it at dinner so nobody is going about wondering where I got off to." Harry reasoned.

"That plan sounds fine to me. It's not like Luna will object or anything- she'll probably be overjoyed at the prospect of having some company." Ron snatched another biscuit off of the plate and crammed the entire thing into his mouth like he used to do. Hermione made a sound of outrage and started smacking his arm while Harry laughed and did nothing to defend him.

00000

The train station looked the same as it always did, full of Muggles completely ignorant to anything beyond their own lives and the rules that existed for them, and noisy with wind from the passing trains.

Harry fiddled with the straps on his trunk, and wondered if he was really doing the right thing by leaving England. Before he had a chance to work himself up, though, Luna appeared at the top of the steps, dragging her rather banged-up trunk behind her.

"Hi, Harry!" She chirped, dropping the handle of her trunk when she was close enough and throwing her arms around his waist enthusiastically. He laughed because she'd tickled his ribs and hugged her back, mussing the top of her head because he could.

"Hello, Luna. How are you? Do you have everything?"

She nodded, inspecting him. He wondered if there was something on his face and was about to ask when she spoke up. "You got taller."

"Um, that's perfectly possible. Not by much, though." He smiled, inwardly sighing at her non-answer. If she forgot something vital like her plane ticket, he could just find some way to fix it. "By the way, why are we traveling the Muggle way instead of just getting a pass and Apparatating?"

She looked at him like he was completely mad. "Why are we doing this? We're doing it to experience the culture, of course!"

He decided not to mention that Muggle traveling was hell.

"Well, our train is boarding in two minutes. Do you mind if I go buy myself a coffee before it takes off?"

"Nope; would you get me one too?"

"Sure, what kind would you like?"

She goggled. "There's more than one kind?"

"Yeah; they've got lattes and cappuccinos and mixed things with very little coffee in them but lots of sugar to replace it. You didn't know this?"

She released her breath in a big whoosh. "Oh, you can pick for me. I always get all confused with all of the different ways they make coffee these days."

He just nodded and walked off to the stand, not sure what to think about Luna and coffee together combined with Muggle travel, which consisted of a lot of sitting still in confined places with a lot of other people.

This trip was either going to be the best thing that'd ever happened to him or his worst nightmare.

00000

The train ride was alright, but the aero plane experience turned out to be one that he would never, ever forget. And he was never going to expose Luna to peanuts in infuriating little plastic packets again if at all possible.

"So where are we going now?" he supposed that this could be considered a major oversight on his part, but while stressing over the actual process of coming from England to America, he'd completely forgotten about what they would be doing once they got there. Apparently there were fifty states in this country to choose from with varying forms of terrible weather phenomena and time zones to choose from.

Surprisingly, instead of looking at him with that awful blank look that meant she had no idea either, Luna perked up and cheerfully replied, "We're going to Washington!"

"Oh…okay. Where in Washington are we going? It's a big state."

She flapped her hand at him. "Harry, you really need to stop worrying about details like that and look at the important thing."

There was a beat of silence. "What important thing?" Harry tentatively asked.

She shrugged. "How the hell am I supposed to know?"

Harry groaned.

00000

End chapter 3

FINALLY! Sorry for the short delay, but I experienced almost 24 hours with no electricity.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Finding a plane route from New York to Washington was simple enough, and Luna was cooperative, which was an infinite relief. However, upon revealing to his blonde companion mid-way through the flight when she asked where in Washington they would be dropped off, his answer didn't seem to make her very happy.

"What's the matter, Luna? Olympia is their capitol city and a wonderful place to start off. Besides, there are no magical communities on it that we know of, so Olympia is our best bet."

Luna sulked, refusing to answer for a full minute, her small fingers pulling ineffectually at the bag of animal crackers she'd obtained from the steward. Getting irritable just watching her fiddle with it, Harry snatched it out of her hands and opened it for her.

"Thank you." She mumbled, popping one into her mouth and offering him the bag. He shook his head, turning to look at the window.

"Okay, what's wrong with Olympia?" He asked several minutes later, unable to restrain his curiosity.

"It's too crowded." She promptly replied. "I need lots of trees and stuff if I'm going to be able to look in the right places for them."

He frowned. "The right places for what? Snorkracks? Fairies?"

Surprisingly, she just laughed. "No. Guess again!"

"Um…Hippogriffs? Grindylows? Come on, Luna, just tell me. I give up!"

Luna smiled at him and popped another animal cracker into her mouth, chewed, swallowed, and leaned close enough that he could smell the sugar on her breath. "We're going to be researching Vampires."

His mouth fell open. She squinted at him and then closed it for him. "You're going to catch flies, Harry."

He snapped out of it. "You're kidding, right?"

"No, why would I kid about something like this? You see, I got a tip from one of daddy's old school friends who said that he overheard something about a Vampire coven that only ate animals. I followed up with him, and he said that they were somewhere in Washington last he heard, but that there was no human-Vampire alliances with them."

Harry just stared at her. "You swear that this isn't some kind of joke?"

"I already said that I was serious, Harry." She pointed out, tilting the bag so that the last crumbs of animal crackers could make their way down her throat.

"But Luna, we're not qualified. We haven't had any training; we don't have any tools or supplies, much less a permit from the Ministry!" Luna just crinkled her bag, looking down at it mournfully and obviously wishing that she had more of the crackers. "Luna, are you even listening to me?"

"Huh? What did you say?"

"I said," He hissed between clenched teeth, "that we don't have tools or a Ministry permit, both of which are essential to avoid getting ourselves killed! Or worse than that…" he trailed off with a shudder.

Luna shrugged. "This is just some private research, Harry. It's not illegal- the Ministry just won't cover your insurance if you get yourself in trouble. You only need to have a permit if it is for official stuff or if you intend to hunt them."

He blinked. "We're not hunting them? Luna, how do you intend to defend yourself when one of them inevitably makes a dive for your throat?"

"These are Vampires that only eat animals, Harry." Luna giggled. "We won't have to defend ourselves…but I packed some stakes just in case."

Harry breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank god." For a moment there, he'd truly believed that they were doomed to be eaten alive. But then, you never could tell with Luna whether she was faking or not, if she was a genius or a fool behind those dazed gray eyes.

"_Really, _Harry. I'm not stupid."

Privately, he thought to himself, 'I never believed that you were'.

00000

When they landed, Luna grabbed her trunk, cleverly shrunk and disguised as a Muggle carry-on similar to Harry's, from the overhead compartment without assistance and started making her way down the aisle before anyone else had even got out of their seats. By the time they reached the front of the path, she was subtly shoving people out of her way with her elbows, never bothering to look back or apologize.

Harry just followed her as closely as he could to avoid being swallowed by the surging crowd, mystified at her apparent bad mood. He dearly hoped that his remarks from earlier hadn't upset her. It was just that sometimes it was too easy to forget that Luna was a full-grown woman who knew what she was doing when she bothered to concentrate.

The steep upward climb was hell on his joints, stiff from sitting still for so long, and he felt the drowsiness of jet-lag turn his mood sour. There was a loose patch in the thin industrial carpet and his shoe caught in it, tripping him. He hissed between his teeth at the sudden pain, and a middle-aged business man stepped on the back of his calf by accident.

"Oi! Do you mind?" He snapped, harsher than he wanted to. The long plane ride and Luna were getting to him. He was pretty sure that he was going to be bruised in several places tomorrow morning and wasn't looking forward to the experience.

He stumbled back to his feet and sped up so he could keep Luna within his sights.

Luna's continued silence was not helping his blackening mood. Granted, the Ravenclaw was quiet even when she wasn't upset, but her jaw usually didn't have the hard set that it did just then.

They'd emerged out of the tunnel and were now passing through the area filled with rows of identically uncomfortable blue chairs. A little ways away, Harry could see what looked like a food court or at least a collection of restaurants. He decided that now was as good a time as any to cheer both of them up- he'd found out a while back that most ills could be cured by a full stomach.

"Luna, wait up!"

Miraculously, she slowed to a gentle walk and then stopped altogether. He could see her small shoulders heave a sigh through the thin fabric of her sweater before she turned and smiled politely at him. It was the strangest and most foreign look that Harry had ever seen on her face, never mind that billions of other people threw insincere smiles out like that all the time.

"Yes?"

He rubbed the back of his stiff neck with the hand not currently losing all circulation from his heavy carry-on. "Look, I'm not sure what I did to make you upset with me, or if it even was me that contributed to your bad mood, but I wanted to say that I'm sorry. Can I buy you something for dinner to prove that I mean it?"

The polite smile on her faded and she looked almost embarrassed.

"What? What did I say now?" he asked, feeling more and more sheepish by the minute. What if she wasn't even angry and he just apologized for no reason?

"You didn't do anything, Harry. I'm just, well, having a girl problem."

Harry's eyebrows drew together in confusion. "A girl problem? What kind of girl problem?"

Luna rolled her eyes, looking completely out of sorts and, Harry thought, unreasonably embarrassed. She leaned close and whispered, "I'm menstruating. Mood swings are normal for me, and most other women, at this time in this sort of situation."

His face went red and he nodded shakily. Aunt Petunia never bothered to inform him so frankly of her own issues and Hermione was always discreet, so being told so honestly about something that he'd been convinced was supposed to be private was a bit intense. Finally, he said the only thing he could think of.

"Would you like me to buy you some chocolate?"

She gleefully clasped his arm, mood obviously flipping. "Oh, that would be lovely."

00000

They checked into the first affordable hotel that they could find, and forgot to ask for a room with two beds, as they soon discovered upon unlocking their room and entering it to find a single bed.

"Oh…" Harry mumbled, blushing for the millionth time that day. Luna could be singularly comfortable and uncomfortable to be around, and all at the same time. It was bewildering, really. When he looked over at Luna to see how she was taking this, all he saw was her usual look of bland good humor.

Feeling him looking at her, she looked up at him and actually smirked. "Harry, I'm not implying anything by this because I like you but not like that, but if you're okay with it, then I'm okay with it. I used to sleep with my daddy all the time when he would cry in his sleep from missing my mother."

This wasn't the first time that Luna had confided something so private to him, and he impulsively hugged her. It felt rather girly, but he was beyond caring about his masculinity at this point after hearing her quietly mumble to herself about her female condition for several hours.

"So…what are we going to do about the bed?" Luna asked a couple of peaceful seconds later.

"Well, since you've already said that you don't mind, then I won't either. If I kick you or wake you up by moving around, let me know and we'll book another room." He replied quietly, contemplating the size of the bed and deciding that it shouldn't be too strange to share it with her.

00000

Olympia, much to Harry's shock, managed to amuse Luna for two whole days, due to the amount of art exhibitions and small cafes that she seemed to find fascinating. However, lying on their separate sides of the hotel bed at 3 in the morning of what would have been day three, Luna spoke up.

"Not that it isn't lovely here, Harry, but I'm ready to move on. Is that alright?" she tilted her head, the pillows scrunching up and obscuring her view of him. He helped her pat them down so that she could make proper eye contact.

"Yeah, whatever you want." He gracefully shrugged a shoulder, lying on his side and propping up his head with his hand. "This is _your _trip, hon. I'm just along to spend time with you and get away from everything back in merry old England. If you want to move on so you can research Vampires, I'm fine with it."

She laughed, amused at his sarcastic reference to their country. "Thanks for not pitching a hissy fit on me."

"Me? Have a hissy fit? Really, Luna, what kind of a woman do you think I am?" Harry kidded, poking her in the ribs. She giggled and batted at his hand.

"Hey now, don't get fresh with me. I might be blonde, but you shouldn't believe everything that you hear about blondes."

Harry opened his mouth and then shut it. Finally, he burst out, "Where the hell did that come from?"

Luna burst into giggles. "Sorry, babes. I just think I overdid the wine a little bit; I feel all nice and numb right now- no cramping pain for me!" She sobered a little bit, thinking about what she'd just said. "Maybe getting those fake I.D. wasn't such a good idea."

He sat up, reaching over for the glass of water that he kept on his night stand. Handing it to her, he made sure that she had a firm grip on it before letting go himself. "Here, drink this. Do you feel nauseous at all? You know I love you, Luna, but I don't want to wake up covered in your vomit, even if it smells like chocolate."

She greedily drank all of his water, handing the empty glass back carelessly. She let go of it a little too quickly and it smacked into Harry's thigh. He grunted and shushed her when she was about to apologize.

"I don't feel sick, Harry. Thanks for the water; that was nice of you." She laid back and pulled on his arm so that he would do the same. When his head hit the pillow, she snuggled into his side and wrapped one of her arms through his. "So, speaking of taking my research seriously, we're going to look up an informant of my father's and see if he knows anything."

Harry processed this. "And where does this friend live?"

"Seattle, I believe. But don't worry!" She hastily reassured him. "I have his telephone number so we don't even have to meet up in person. We'll just go straight from here to wherever he picked up news of these Vampires."

He chewed the inside of his cheek, wondering if it would be okay for him to ask something that'd been bothering him. Being a Gryffindor, he decided to just come out with it. "Luna, I've been meaning to ask you something."

"Okay. Ask away; I promise not to beat you over the head with anything more serious than a pillow if I find it upsetting." She giggled somewhat drunkenly, nuzzling her pointy chin into his shoulder.

Wincing from the sharp sensation, he hesitantly asked, "How do these informants learn about things like Vampire feeding habits and covens?"

She paused in her nuzzling, and he could feel her cool gray eyes on him. "There are a lot of different ways. Usually our informants work as trackers for Muggles and pick things up while on the job, or a Vampire trips one of the monitoring spells that people like my parents and others with a strong interest in Magical Creatures have set up all over the world. Those same spells are what the Ministry uses to keep track of the Creature populations."

"Oh." For some reason, he wasn't expecting her answer to be so believable. "I guess that that makes sense."

"Good. Can you switch off the lamp now? I want to go to sleep."

He grinned into the warm light. "I will if you get that bony face of yours off of my shoulder, or turn it to a less-painful angle."

She shuffled her weight, pulling the covers up over her and resting her face flat across his chest instead. "How's this? Not too weird?"

He honestly considered her question, ignoring the social rules that told him that this was only something that should be done with one's girlfriend. "It's not weird at all; it's nice. Your hair smells good."

"Thank you. Now can you please turn off the light?"

"Oh!" He laughed, embarrassed, and reached over to pull the ball-chain to turn out the lights. "Better now?"

"Much better. Good night, Harry."

"Good night, Luna."

00000

End chapter 4

.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

While Luna made her little phone call the next morning, Harry tried to rip out a hang-nail with his teeth repeatedly, but the little sliver of throbbing flesh continued to evade him, slipping through his teeth every time he thought he had a good grip on it.

He growled when it escaped yet again, and his teeth snapped into the tender inner part of his lower lip instead.

If he wasn't so frustrated with his own nail hygiene, he would have put more effort into eavesdropping on Luna's conversation.

The phone clicked as she replaced it in its cradle. There was a moment of breathless silence while Harry waited for her to say something. Instead of saying anything, she suddenly squealed and pounced on him.

"What? What happened?" He asked, lying flat on his back on their shared bed with her sitting on his ribcage, her hands clasped in mute excitement. It was starting to hurt, having that much pressure on his bones, and he was about to ask her politely to remove herself from his chest when she whispered, too wound up to speak normally,

"We don't just have a lead, Harry. We have a _specific _location."

His eyes widened. He wasn't expecting that- he'd thought that they would spend the next several months wandering aimlessly through unnamed forests and eventually get eaten by a random Vampire. This new development made everything a lot more believable.

"Seriously?"

She nodded, her hair moving crazily with the movement. One of the locks smacked Harry in the face and he squinted at her. Apparently realized that she was crushing him, she crawled off of him and folded her legs under her so she could sit perched next to his prone body.

"He was very excited about it over the phone. Apparently, they only discovered their base location last night, when they moved back from their temporary shift to another location that we still don't know the coordinates for. They're pretty sure that it's in Alaska, though."

"So…are we going to Alaska or the other one? And where is the other location, again?"

"It's in Forks, Washington, and that is the one we're going to because not only is it closer, its also where they deemed it safe enough to set up a base." Luna seemed to become more thoughtful, her features relaxing from their intense expression. "But before we go, I think that there are one more of those darling little cafes that we haven't tried yet. That would be nice for breakfast, yeah?"

Unable to think of an objection, Harry just nodded weakly. Luna could be overwhelming sometimes, especially when she got excited about anything on an empty stomach.

00000

"Oh, isn't this exciting?" Luna asked yet again, bouncing faintly in place on the vinyl-covered bench. The movement caused small ripples to go through the padding and jolt Harry every time he was getting settled into it.

"Yes, it's wonderful." He tried and failed to keep some of the sarcasm out of his voice. His eyes widened when he remembered her possible mood swings. "I mean, how are you feeling?"

She blinked at him innocently. "I feel like there's a rushing river just barely held back by a flimsy man-made dam."

He swallowed. "Ah."

She patted his knee, smiling to herself. "So, Harry, how did you sleep last night?"

"I slept fine." His voice squeaked at the end of the word 'fine', so he hurried to conceal it by continuing, "Why do you ask?"

She shrugged a shoulder, looking casually out the window to hide her secret smirk. Harry was just too easy to rile up sometimes. "Well, you just made some moaning noises like you were in pain or something, so I figured that you'd had a nightmare or something."

He covered his face with his hands, feeling a little bit dizzy from all of the blood suddenly pumping into his face. "Ah…yes, yes I did have a nightmare."

Luna giggled. "That must have been some nightmare- I've never had a bad dream that made me-"

"Can we please talk about something else?" Harry whispered, cutting her off before she could say something more humiliating. There was a middle-aged woman sitting in the bench in front of theirs with a romance novel in her hands, and she hadn't turned the page since Luna started talking. Peeking at Luna through his hands, he saw the cheekiest smile on her face and his mouth dropped open in shock. Luna was playing with him!

"Sure! What would you like to talk about that doesn't involve you moaning in your sleep?" She grinned at him and unexpectedly winked. "Come on, Harry, don't get all girly on me. I can't tease anybody else like this."

Harry sighed, exhausted already from the miniature emotional roller coaster she'd just put him through. "Okay. What kind of research do you intend on doing?"

"I want to find out how they survive on only the nutrition available to them in animal's blood, what inspired them to do what they do, and of course, figure out whether or not they can assimilate easier into human society." She said it all in one breath and gasped a little at the end.

To Harry's relief, the woman in front of them stopped paying attention to them and went back to her book. He turned his attention back to his friend and asked, "Did you bring anything to read? All I have are some travel brochures and old textbooks, and those are packed into my bag."

"I have the newspaper." Luna shrugged. "And some books on our research subject which you can't have out in the open."

He sighed. "I'll have the newspaper if you're not reading it."

"Take it." She handed him her purse and pulled her legs up under herself, crossing her arms and leaning against the window. "I'm going to have a nap- wake me up when we get there if I'm still asleep."

"Alright; sleep well." He dug through the complicated mess that was Luna's purse, finally locating the much-folded newspaper under a woven sack that jingled like bells when he touched it.

0000

"Luna! Luna!" He shook her small shoulder, his bag in one hand and her on his shoulder. She stirred, muttered something that sounded like an expletive, and woke up.

"Are we there yet?"

"Yes, and you need to get up _now _if you don't want to miss our stop." He gestured urgently when she didn't start moving. "Come on!"

"Okay, okay. I'm moving; cool it, Harry, before you give yourself a premature heart attack. Sheesh..."

When she stood up with her hand on her luggage, still disguised as a carry-on, he gripped her elbow and dragged her off of the train just in time. The doors clipped Harry's ankle as they closed and he scowled.

The pouring rain just made him grumpier, and he dug into Luna's purse until he pulled out an umbrella. Opening it up as quickly as his slick fingers would allow, he covered Luna before squeezing in under it with her.

"You're all wet." She giggled, sounding inordinately cheerful, considering how short a time ago it was that she was all snippy with him.

"Sorry." He muttered, focusing for the first time on where they were.

The station was a forlorn little concrete platform with a lonely wood-framed bulletin with an obviously hand-painted plaque nailed to the top that spelled out 'Forks'. If you wanted a textbook-perfect image for a hick town, this was it.

Harry swore. "Luna, where the fucks have you brought us? Its 2 o'clock in the after noon but it's as dark as pitch! And what about this fucking rain? If this is their rainy season, how are we supposed to track Vampires?"

She didn't answer, and when he looked down at her, she just raised her blonde eyebrows. "Are you done now?"

He took a deep breath and released it slowly. "Yeah, I think I am. Just…find us somewhere to stay the night that is warm and dry and I'll let it go that you've led us into a mission impossible situation."

"Okay." She wrapped her hand around his where it held the umbrella so that she could guide him through that and not get any wetter than she already was. They approached the bulletin board and found that they had to lean very close and squint to read any of the notices in the gloom. All that was there were, unfortunately, various unhelpful notices on local events. There wasn't one mention of even a bed and breakfast.

"Damn it." Luna muttered, reaching around Harry to dip her hand into her purse. She pulled out a sandwich wrapped in greased paper that he had absolutely no memory of her purchasing before they got on the train to Forks. She unfolded the paper around it and bit into the side, revealing it to be watercress.

"Where did you get that?" Harry asked, not taking his eyes off of it.

She looked up slowly, meeting his eyes. And then she looked at her sandwich, sighed, and carefully split it in half. "Here, have some."

"Thank you." He said around a mouthful of sandwich, turning his attention back to the notice board one last time for a desperate glance. "Nope, still nothing."

While they were distracted, a police car pulled up next to the platform and the occupant rolled down their window.

"HEY!"

They looked up when they heard someone yelling, wondering what was going on.

"HEY! You two up there at the station!"

Harry swiveled around and spotted the police car. Understanding that this was their best bet at finding somewhere to stay, he started moving towards the car across the platform, forgetting that Luna was sharing the umbrella with him.

She got rained on, shrieked, and huddled back under the umbrella again, clenching his waist to keep him from forgetting her and leaving her to all wet by herself.

They descended the steps with care, and Harry slipped on the last one, nearly taking Luna down with him.

Damp and shivering, they clustered around the window of the police car. "Hi there!" Luna greeted, smiling innocently.

"Hi, kids." The mustached man replied, smiling back. "You two looked kind of lost up there. Did you need some help?"

"Um, we could use directions, actually, if you've got them." Harry replied. "We were wondering if there was any lodging close by."

The man frowned. "None in this town; we're not exactly a tourist attraction. However, there is a bed and breakfast in the next town over that's pretty reasonable."

"Oh, money is no object. We'd just like for it to be close to here." Luna piped up.

"Why is that? Are you two visiting relatives in the area? Doing some hiking?" his voice was pleasant enough, but Harry could tell that this man was sizing them up, seeing if they looked like troublemakers.

"We've heard about all the wildlife here and I wanted to just be close to that." Luna said, with her voice as smooth as silk. "I just love nature, and I didn't want to come by myself since traveling alone is dangerous, so I brought my friend Harry with me to make sure I don't get in trouble with any grizzlies." She laughed, with her pretty face the very picture of youth and honesty.

A slightly relieved look came into the officer's eyes. "Yeah, we get some very interesting animals and plants up here with all of this rain. Tell you what, how about you kids get in the car and I'll drive you to this bed and breakfast."

"Oh, would you?" Luna took her act (was it an act? Harry wasn't sure anymore) a step farther and clasped her hands in front of her heart. "Thank you so much! We'll pay you, sir, I promise."

"Sure, it's no problem. There's no need to pay me. I can't just leave you here to walk a couple of miles in the dark and in the rain, can I?"

Seated in the backseat of a police car, Harry looked at Luna and found her grinning at him yet again.

"What's your name, sir?"

"My name is Charlie Swan. I am the Chief of Police in Forks."

0000

End chapter 5

.


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

The old lady sitting behind the polished wood desk at the bed and breakfast sneered at their clasped hands and dripping clothes.

"Can I help you?" She sniffed, obviously wishing that they would take their muddy shoes off of the floral entrance rug. Her glasses glinted in the light of the old-fashioned lamps, and Harry noticed that they had little rhinestones set into the sides, half-hidden by her permanent hair curls.

"Yes. We'd like to rent a room, please." Luna replied before Harry could, her dainty hands squeezing excess water out of her long curls. A puddle was quickly forming around her on the rug, so Harry nudged her forward. She shot him a funny look over her shoulder, and then gripped the counter, leaning forward. "Can we get a room with either two beds or a big one, by the way?"

Her eyes went wide when she realized that they intended to share a room between themselves. "W-well…I'll just check and see what we have available, shall I?" she stuttered out, tearing her eyes from the young people she believed to be having some kind of elaborate affair and typed something into the outdated computer. "We do have 2 vacant rooms, both of which have a single bed."

"Is there any difference in the size of the beds?" Harry asked, helping Luna work the water out of her hair. A few droplets landed on the surface of the desk, and the woman glared at them like they were criminals.

"No, there is not. Both are capable of sleeping two people. The only difference is that one of them is on the first floor and the other is on the second."

Harry looked at Luna for her opinion. "Do you have any preferences one way or another, Luna?"

"The second floor would be nicer. That way we can see the tops of the trees, instead of their trunks as they wave in all of this lovely rain." She seemed awfully excited about the prospect of watching trees get rained on, so Harry decided to go with it.

"We'll take the one on the second floor. Where's the elevator?"

She blinked at them. "There is no elevator. The stairs are just behind that Chinese screen over there." She pointed with one long spindly finger to a corner with a screen concealing half of it.

"Thank you; can we have the key, please?"

Grumbling disapproval, she pulled something off of a concealed hook. It turned out to be a disgusting rusty key chain. She sifted through the keys until she found one stamped with the number '202'.

"Here you are. Complimentary breakfast starts at seven and ends at nine."

And with that bit of well-wishing, Harry and Luna made their way up the creaky wooden steps to the second floor. There were just two other doors besides theirs on the floor, rooms 201 and 203.

Their door took up the entire wall on the left side of the hallway other than a recessed cleaning closet, and their room number was painted on a hand-made glass ornament, with little daisies painted around it.

"Oh, how cute…" Luna cooed, pausing to stroke it before standing to one side so that Harry could unlock it.

"Wow, this is different." Harry said to no one, stepping over the threshold and setting his damp luggage on the floor. He pulled Luna's purse off of his shoulder and placed it on the bed for her to deal with. "Do you mind if I have a shower first, Luna?"

"No, go ahead. I want to read the paper, now that you're done with it." She smiled over her shoulder at him, claiming a side of the bed and switching on the lamp available to her. "Let me know how well the hot water works in this place. We can talk about what to do about dinner and transportation after you're done."

"Alright." Harry agreed, digging through his bag for a change of clothes before going back into the bathroom.

Alone, Luna fluffed up the pillows and leaned back, unfolding the newspaper to the Art section.

000

"Sorry to bother you again, ma'am, but where would you recommend as an inexpensive place for us to eat dinner that is not outrageously far from here?" Harry put on his most charming smile, leaning slightly on the counter.

"I recommend fast food if you want inexpensive and close-by. There's a McDonald's two blocks from here if you go left after stepping outside. If you want something fancier than that, go eight blocks to your right, there's a café called Rose Garden that closes in an hour, so you'd best hurry if that's the one you want."

Harry nodded gratefully. "Thanks so much!"

She turned a bit pink, and seemed to be reconsidering her previous opinion of them, even if they did look like young fornicators to her. "Ah, it's no bother. Say, where are you two kids from, anyway? Australia?"

Harry laughed. "Not quite. I'm from England, and my friend Luna here is as well."

"Well, then you two have come quite a ways. What brings you to Washington?" she looked genuinely interested, and Harry picked up the usual town busy-body vibes from her.

He decided to choose his words carefully, while Luna wandered off to fiddle with the local brochures and fake flower arrangements decorating a slender table across from the desk.

"We heard about the wide range of wildlife and plants available in this area, and since Luna is very interested in things like that and I needed a vacation, we decided to go together." He smiled again. "We should get going though; we haven't eaten in a while and I become a little irritable when I haven't had food."

She laughed, amused at his honesty. "Have a nice time, kids." She noticed that Luna was slowly demolishing a false rose. "Oh! Uh, Luna, please stop that."

Luna looked up vaguely, and then meekly set the remains of the rose on top of the brochures. "Sorry. I'm a very tactile person, and I have trouble controlling myself sometimes. Would you like me to pay for that?"

She looked between the too-wide eyes of the English girl and the flower, and then slowly shook her head. "No, that's okay, sweetie."

"Okay! Harry, let's go brave that rain again and get some food."

000

McDonald's golden arches glowed even through the rain, and Harry had never been happier to see the home of greased food.

Impulsively grabbing Luna's hand, he dragged her into a sprint so they would reach the shade of the awnings faster. "So, have you ever been to McDonald's before, Luna?"

She shook her head, looking around the inside of the restaurant with a slightly wild look. "I've never been in something this artificial before. What kind of food do they serve here?"

Harry shrugged carelessly. "I don't really remember…this is the kind of place my cousin would eat at with his friends, not me. I'm pretty sure that they have stuff other than the hamburgers they always advertise, though, in case you don't like them."

Luna hummed quietly, and then walked in a zigzag towards the front counter, where a greasy-faced teenaged boy stood staring at her in slack-jawed admiration.

Harry grinned and followed behind her to make sure that the guy would be able to say more than 'can I have your phone number?' by the time she decided to try and order something from the menu.

"Hi!" He squeaked, his voice cracking to a painful pitch.

"Hello there, lovely." Luna vaguely replied, gazing at the menu.

He turned so red Harry started to get worried that he would faint or something. "Luna, do you know what you would like to eat?"

"I think I'll have that one." She pointed at the largest hamburger they had. "Harry, you can order now."

Harry balked. "I will have the same thing. This way, if I get a heart attack, so will you and then we can always be together." He laughed, hugging Luna to his side and pulling out his wallet with his other hand.

The man behind the counter glared at him like he was a kitten murderer for laying his claim on Luna. When Luna wasn't paying attention to him, he stuck out his tongue.

When they got their food, they choose a booth in the corner to eat in. there were a few scattered groups of teenagers in the area, and they all looked over the two British teens like they were aliens.

Half-way through his soda, Harry noticed that someone behind him was looking at them with special interest. He stretched out his foot beneath the table and gently bumped Luna's striped leg under the table. She looked up from her French fries, and then looked in the direction that he jerked his head.

"What do they look like?" He asked quietly.

"He's a big guy in jean cut-offs, dark-skinned with black hair. He's got some boys with him that could be his brothers." She smiled suddenly, gray-blue eyes crinkling at the corners. "They're very good-looking."

Harry groaned. "Can you spare me the admiration? I'm getting curious and I don't want to look." He bit his lip. "What are they eating?"

"Um, a _lot; _I've never seen that much food in front of so few people."

"Oh, now I just have to look." He leaned forward, stretching one shoulder and turning his face to the wall. He then stretched the other shoulder, and just happened to look in the direction he could feel the gaze coming from.

They fit the description Luna had provided him with, and the biggest one who was looking at them so intensely met his eyes straight on. He raised one hand, with a half-eaten burger in it, to wave.

"Hi there." His voice was low, but it carried across the distance between their booths.

One of the larger groups of teenagers chose at that moment to leave, and the restaurant seemed eerily quiet without their vapid chatter, the radio becoming one of the few sounds.

"Hello." Harry replied. "Do I have something on my face?"

The guy looked confused, squinted at him as if he was actually looking, and then shook his head. "There's nothing that I can see, dude."

A slow smile spread across Harry's face. "Then why are you staring at it?"

He flushed. "Oh, I'm sorry. That was probably pretty rude of me."

"It's okay; I'd just like to know why my friend and I have become such good targets for gaping at." He stole one of Luna's French fries because she was distracted with crinkling her wrapper, but she caught him and smacked his hand.

"Hey! I gave you some of my sandwich earlier- there's no need for you to be robbing me in this manner." She huffed and picked up the paper sleeve that they were served in, tucking it close to her chest. Seemingly noticing that Harry had established contact with the staring boys, she put on a wide smile. "Hello there, boys."

One of them whistled a little, and then hissed 'ow!' when he was elbowed by one of his friends.

"You still haven't answered my question." Harry pointed out.

The biggest one rubbed the back of his arm, looking embarrassed to be put on the spot. "I'm sorry for staring, but I overheard you guys ordering up there and I was wondering what some U.K. people were doing out here. This isn't tourist country and we haven't heard any word of visitors. I guess I was just curious."

Harry shrugged. "That's reasonable. This seems like a pretty quiet area; peaceful. It's just what Luna and I need to relax."

"Oh? Are you guys on vacation? This place might be peaceful, as you say, but it's a shitty place to vacation."

Luna laughed. "Oh, we're not just going to spend all of our time playing around. We're researching the wildlife here as a little project of ours. But, how rude of me, I don't think that we've exchanged names just yet? I'm Luna, and this is my school friend Harry."

"Your name is Luna, huh? That means 'moon' in Latin, right? That's kind of ironic…" One of them, who was a little broader on the muscle side than the skinny one sitting next to him, said. The skinny one elbowed him and hissed "Shut up!"

The big guy rolled his eyes. "I'm Jacob Black, and these are my friends Quil and Embry."

Harry smiled at them. "Did you guys do some heavy-lifting before you got here or something? I didn't know that people could eat that much junk food in one sitting."

Jacob laughed. "Ah, we're notorious for our big appetites, but we do a lot of running together, and we get hungry for stuff that isn't healthy sometimes."

"I understand completely." Luna said with her strange intensity, looking at the guy named Jacob specifically. "How does running at night compare to running in daylight?"

"I, uh, wouldn't know. We don't run at night- it's dangerous in the woods if you don't know what you're doing."

Luna nodded. "You have a fair point, but I think you're lying. You've got dark circles under your eyes- they gave you away, honey."

He didn't seem to know what to say to that, although Harry could tell that he was itching to ask her how she had made such a bizarre connection. "Luna, did you want to get something for dessert?"

She shook her head. "No thanks; I feel like I just swallowed a brick."

They stood and gathered their garbage.

"Well, it was nice meeting you. Maybe we'll run into you again, when we're in the woods." Harry said, dumping his garbage and helping Luna figure out how the trash can system worked and rescuing her tray before she could throw it out. "We'll be here for a while."

"Okay!" Embry called after them, and then grinned. "I look forward to seeing you again, Luna."

She smiled at him over her shoulder coyly and then followed Harry out the door, where he had the umbrella unfurled and waiting for her.

"Harry, first thing tomorrow, weather permitting, we are going to start investigating. There was something off about those boys."

"I agree."

000

End chapter 6


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: I just wanted to thank everyone who has been reading this story! It's gotten so many hits already, and that makes me feel a lot less insecure about it. Thank you!

CHAPTER 7

It was Saturday morning, and the first day of their self-imposed hiking trip.

"What are you wearing?" Harry asked, numb-shocked to come out of the shower and find Luna standing there in absolutely the most ridiculous outfit he'd ever seen someone wear when intending to spend the day tromping around in soggy forests.

"I'm wearing clothes, Harry. And you are wearing a towel; your towel is far more inappropriate than my clothes, you know." She innocently replied, sipping some of the coffee she'd made with their tiny plastic machine out of the pot instead of using one of the foam cups. "This skirt was my mother's…she said that it was her lucky skirt, and she always wore it when she wanted to make some progress or learn something new."

He smiled softly then, coming over to gently touch the thin fabric of the skirt, which was very soft with age. It was at that unfashionable length now referred to as 'tea-length, the hem hitting her mid-calf. The thin stripes were blue, white, and yellow. Overall, it was a very cheerful-looking skirt. "I like it. But it's still unsuitable for the woods by itself."

She snorted at him, obviously trying not to laugh about something he had said.

"What?" he asked, his pride irritated by her early-morning cheer. He took the coffee pot out of her hands and took a tentative sip, discovering that she had sweetened it like he suspected.

"Of course I wouldn't just wear this skirt in the woods, Harry! I did some precautions, see?" She flipped up her skirt, flashing him her pair of tight denim cropped pants. There were little rips along the bottoms of them and they looked well-worn. "I've got my work pants on."

"Ah." He choked out, trying to ignore the rather large hole where her left pocket should be, which revealed a glimpse of a purple lace something underneath. "Well, that takes a load off of my mind. Do you have a warm hooded jacket that we can waterproof?"

"I laid it out on the chair over there for you." She gestured broadly at the coat lying on said chair. The coffee pot clinked half-heartedly as she set it down on the table next to the machine. "I'm going to the W.C."

"Okay." He acknowledged absently, turning her coat over in his hands and then casting a water-proofing spell; the spell would allow them to go tromping around in the mud and rain without having to handle the bother of a potentially-unwieldy umbrella.

000

They waved at the lady at the desk as they left that morning, and she waved back with her coffee mug. A little bit sloshed over and burned her hand, making her curse in ways that they'd never heard from anyone other than the Weasley Twins.

"They must work long shifts here, if she was here last night and here this morning as well." Luna noted as they stepped outside, putting their hoods up over their heads to protect them from the mild drizzle. It was still dark outside, even though it was almost ten in the morning.

"So…" Harry said, looking around at the woods pressing in on them on every side. "Which way do we go first, princess?"

Luna tilted her head, and Harry began to hope that she would answer his question with the amount of seriousness that he felt it deserved. "I've always thought that straight to the left is a good place to start."

No such luck. His plans to make Luna think like a rational person were foiled yet again. But since this was Luna's research trip and he would be enjoying nature and all that that entailed no matter where they went he let it go this time. "Alright; we'll go left." He made a sweeping motion with his hands. "I'll go after you, Luna. You're the Moses' of this operation."

She laughed and started tripping blithely down the steps. "I didn't know that you could make Bible references, Harry. Not many Wizards know very much about religions, Muggle or otherwise." She crossed the street without looking, and Harry groaned quietly before following her swiftly.

When they broke the first line of trees and wandered through the bracken without a path to guide them, Luna spoke up. "Speaking of religion, Harry, how do you feel about the possibility of an after life?"

That threw him a little. He wasn't used to discussing 'heavy' stuff with Luna outside of war business before the defeat of Voldemort. "I…well, I haven't really thought about it too much. I know that there must be some place, since my parents have contacted me and there are ghosts and stuff, but like I said, I haven't thought about it."

She made a sound of disbelief, stepping around a thick tree.

"What was that for?" Harry asked, curious about her reaction.

"What was what for?" she answered his question with a question, her long skirt swishing softly in the loam and long grasses long left uncut by machinery. There were patches of lush moss every foot or so that would completely muffle the sounds of the foot steps, causing a strange sort of rhythm to the way they moved amongst the trees.

"That little noise you made, like it was strange for me to have not thought about the great unknown."

She shrugged, affecting a casual air. "I had just assumed that, since your life has been threatened so many times with certain death, that you would have put some serious thought into the next step after that. Don't worry about it…I'm just being silly."

They were quiet for the next few minutes, surrounded by the deep green oozing out of everything around them and bird calls.

"I don't think it's silly." Harry said quietly, his eyes straight ahead. He could feel her looking at him now, but didn't give into the almost-magnetic pull to meet her eyes. He delicately side-stepped a broad fern and continued, "I'm a bit ashamed of myself for never giving something that important much thought. I guess you could say that I've always been consumed with life, with doing everything I could while I was still alive."

"What sort of things?" Luna asked, her voice a little lower than it needed to be. The solemnity of the woods and pitter-patter of the raindrops filtering through the stretching branches over their heads added a hushed feeling to their conversation.

"Helpful sorts of things." He shrugged a shoulder, "I wanted to do everything in my power to, if not defeat him, then weaken Voldemort so that he was more vulnerable for defeat in the event of my death. Dealing with him and making sure that as many people came out of it alive, myself excluded, as possible has been my life's purpose ever since I found out that it was me who had to fight him."

Luna thought this over, her gray eyes finally looking away from him. "If that was your purpose after you found out, then what did you live for before then?"

Harry laughed. "You know, it's kind of funny…I didn't have anything to live for. I had nothing other than my friends, and the future was just a big gray blob to me that wasn't worth worrying about outside of immediate things like exams and papers. That sounds disgustingly immature and childish, thinking back on it, but it's the truth. Although…" He turned thoughtful. "I also really wanted a loving family of my own, like my cousin had. I wanted to have that with Sirius as soon as I found out that he was innocent, but you know how that turned out."

"Yeah, I do." She whispered, moving closer and touching his arm gently. "And now that Voldemort is gone, what will you live for? Die for, if that is the case?"

His eyes become pensive. "Right now, all I have is a big fat nothing in answer to that. I guess that I'm having an existential crisis, and I hope that this trip with you gives me some different perspectives on how to live."

She smiled then, and so brightly that it lit up her eyes. "I'll do my best!"

"Now, Luna, it's not your responsibility-"

She covered his mouth with her hand, and he noticed that she was wearing a trio of matching rings and red nail polish. "Shush, Harry. If I want to help you just like normal friends help their normal friends find direction then I will. I want to…I want to help you resurface, so to speak, and come out of the deep water you feel yourself trapped under."

He smiled behind her hand and lightly bit her ring finger. "Thank you very much, darling."

"Hey now, don't turn your charms onto me, you sly bastard. I helping you resurface don't mean that we're going to start making eyes at each other and flirting." Her voice slipped into a little bit of a lower-class accent, and he raised his eyebrows. She flushed a little bit, her neck turning an adorable shade of pink. "What?"

"I've never heard you talk like that before. Where did that come from?" He started laughing a little bit, replaying it in his mind.

"I have some aunts from up in the mountains and they used to visit me when I was little. If I get, ah, _flustered, _sometimes I slip back into the way they used to talk to each other. Old habits die hard and all of that rot."

Harry pinched her cheek affectionately, almost tripping over a random stick on the ground in his distraction. "I was thinking that you sounded more like an old-school songstress."

"Well, that is more flattering than 'mountain hick'."

He bit his lip and then looked at her under his eyelashes, what she'd said finally catching up to him. "You said that you talk like that when you're flustered. Did I make you all-"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence, Harry, unless you enjoy having your balls kicked by a girl in hiking boots?"

"Okay, okay. Peace?"

She just rolled her eyes at him and laughed. "Come on, let's walk a little deeper. I want to start locating the tracking 'trip lines' that we have set up here to see if I can get a better grip on what we're dealing with."

He followed her lead obediently, and the morning passed pleasantly enough. It even stopped raining for about an hour before lunch, when they started walking back towards town in order to get something to eat.

They emerged from the woods quite a bit away from where they'd started. Looking around, Harry saw some nice little shops, one of which was labeled, 'Newton's Outdoor Gear'.

"Harry, I smell food!" Luna bounced excitedly, her hands quivering a little from low blood sugar. "Let's go find out where it's coming from!"

He grinned and followed her into town. They passed by the Outdoor store and he spotted racks of useful-looking equipment. "Hey, Luna?"

"Yeah?"

"We should stop in that outdoor equipment place for a little bit after we've eaten to see if they have anything we might need later. We still don't know how long we're going to be here, after all, and some extra supplies can't hurt."

"Like what? Tents and stuff?" Luna asked absently, her mind clearly focused on food and not fishing gear, which was displayed on the racks closest to the window.

He sighed. "Yes, but we'll talk about this later. I see a diner up there."

"Cool!" She started sprinting for it, her boots splashing mud onto her own skirt and his trousers.

"Oi!" he yelled in outrage. "Luna, you're getting me all muddy." He grumbled, stepping inside behind her, pulling down his hair, and shaking his hair like a dog to get any stray bits of water out of it. There was woman behind the counter, and she raised her eyebrows at their 'wet cat' appearance.

"Sorry, Harry, but I'm just so starving-"

The woman cut into Luna's excited chattering with the dour question of, "Would you kids like to eat here today or not? I'm afraid that we can't allow loiterers who won't pay for anything."

Harry smiled at her anyway. "Oh, we're definitely eating. Do we seat ourselves?"

She looked scandalized. "Of course not! Follow me, kids."

Luna leaned over to Harry as they walked and stage-whispered, "Do you think that they test the bravery of their waitresses here by making them suck on a whole barrel of lemons every day?"

Harry sputtered and clamped a hand over his mouth so that he wouldn't laugh. "Thank you." He choked out when they were seated.

She nodded stiffly and pulled out her notepad. "Would you like anything to drink?"

"Just water, please." Harry answered fiddling with the rolled paper napkin confining his eating materials.

"I'll have the same." Luna piped up, making a playful grab for his silverware. Their waitress stalked off, and when she glanced over her shoulder, she saw the two playfully squabbling over the silverware like toddlers.

"God, teenagers these days, even ones from England or whatever, are so immature." She muttered to her friend Sandra, who nodded.

"Oh my god, I know!"

At their table, Harry and Luna made peace with the silverware and just grinned at each other for no reason. Their little happy session was interrupted by someone walking over to their table, someone who looked vaguely familiar.

"Oh, hi there, kids!" Chief Swan, with a carry-out bag under his arm, greeted. By his side was a pretty brunette girl, who resembled him a little bit. "Did you two get settled in alright?"

Judging by the vague look on her face, his daughter was distantly surprised to hear him ask such a friendly question to a couple of strange teenagers, one of whom was wearing a very interesting skirt with a sweater three times to big. Harry noticed that was something off about her, like she was merely standing there in body, not in spirit. There was a deep depression hanging around her like smog, and he wondered why before deciding that it wasn't any of his business.

"We got rooms just fine, sir, and Thank you for asking, much less even remembering our sorry faces." Luna answered, accepting her water from the waitress as she tried to navigate her way around their guests. "Is this your daughter?"

He beamed and wrapped an arm around her. "Yes, this is my girl, Bella. I'm sorry, but I forgot you guys' names."

"That's okay- I'm Luna."

"And I'm Harry." Harry piped up, playing with his fork by turning it over and over in his long fingers and then spinning it.

"What, you two don't do last names?" There was that dangerous edge under his voice, so Harry decided to answer honestly. God only knows what this man would do to them if he picked up on their lies.

"Harry Potter."

"Luna Lovegood."

He smiled again without the knife behind it, and squeezed his daughter's shoulder again. "Lovegood, huh? That's quite a last name. Well, I'd best leave you two to eat. It was nice seeing you again, and I'm sure that I will again in the future."

Harry laughed nervously and said goodbye as the Chief walked away, his depressed daughter with him. The bell atop the door jingled cheerfully behind them with gruesome finality.

Oh, this was just wonderful. They now had a cop watching them, subtly or not. Harry moaned and banged his head on the table. He had wanted to relax and blend in, not attract government officer attention!

Luna patted the top of his head and ordered for him.

000

End chapter 7


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

"Here we are." Luna whispered reverently, hesitating before running her fingers along some kind of line in the air that Harry couldn't see. As she touched it, it glowed blue, and then amber.

"What do the colors mean?" He asked softly, not wanting to disturb her concentration.

"The blue means that they are still fully effective and have not been tampered with. The amber means that these are the same strange Vampires that only eat animals. With normal Vampires, the magic turns red to match their eyes, so it is reasonable to hypothesize that the 'vegetarian' Vampires, as I like to think of them, would have amber eyes." She released the ward and chewed on her fingernail. "Unfortunately, since the line didn't flash blue, it hasn't been tripped in over a month, probably much longer than that."

Harry's face fell. It wasn't that he _wanted _to encounter Vampires, but he'd hate for their entire purpose to be in vain. "I'm sorry to hear that, Luna. Is there something else that you'd like to do here?"

She looked at him strangely. "Are you mad? There is more than one spell! This one being inactive means nothing; all that it means is that Vampires haven't been in this particular section of the forest for over a month."

"Oh." He blushed. "Well, I feel stupid right now."

Luna laughed and hugged his side. "Nonsense; you just misunderstood. Do you feel up to finding another one before it gets too dark?"

"Of course I feel up to it! Don't insult my manly pride like that." He smiled, still feeling a little foolish. "You brought the torch, right?"

Her eyes went blank. "Torch? Do you really think that it's safe to start a fire right now out in the woods? I mean, I realize that it's too damp for the fire to do any real damage if it gets out of control…" she trailed off. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

He shook his head, smiling. "I meant the metal tube that shines light out of one end when you click the switch."

"Oh, that thing." Luna mused, reaching blindly into her purse and rifling around until she pulled out a packet of crisps, which she handed to Harry. "Hold that please."

"Can I eat them while I hold them?" he asked, trying to sound as innocent as possible as he fiddled with the slick plastic keeping him away from the salty grease-covered bits of potato.

She sighed and nodded. "You're going to eat them anyway- I bought them for you at that petrol station, and some cigarettes."

Harry sputtered, spitting out some of his precious potato crisps. "What?!"

"Ah-ha! Here is your torch!" She pulled it out and stuffed it into the hand not holding the crisps. "Quit standing there with your mouth open, Harry. I don't mind you eating the crisps, but I would appreciate it if we kept walking while you do so."

He started to walk again automatically, and decided to just shut up and eat his crisps. He wasn't aware that Luna smoked, and he wasn't very happy about it. Muggle posters about lung cancer and second-hand smoke statistics had made him almost afraid of the little white sticks, but if he was willing to let Luna threaten her own safety because she wanted to, then it would be hypocritical of him to get on her case over a measly smoking habit that he wasn't previously aware of.

They walked for maybe half an hour in the increasing darkness, and then Harry noticed that their footsteps and the rustling of the rain through the leaves were the only sounds. Luna had also noticed, because she stopped. He stopped as well, and then they truly realized how quiet it was.

"Harry, the forest is too quiet." Luna said softly.

"I know." He whispered back, carefully moving closer to her while balancing on the soles of his feet to keep them silent.

"I'm going to do a scanning test to see if there are any large predators in the area that might have caused this." Her eyes lit up. "Oh, what if the animals are afraid of a Vampire? This means we might be able to see one in person!"

He found her excitement to be slightly misplaced, but said nothing, merely nodding his unnecessary acknowledgement of her impending spell work.

A few mystic words later that he didn't catch, she swished her wand in a graceful series of loops finished with a flick. There was a moment where nothing seemed to happen, but then a few trees and sections of the ground lit up. Luna worried her lower lip.

"What does this mean?" Harry whispered, not comprehending what the purpose of the lit areas was.

"The same predator that has been in the same areas currently illuminated is in our vicinity, most likely anywhere within a square mile."

He nodded, starting to feel a little bit nervous. Deciding to take his mind off of it by asking questions, he asked, "Do we know what it is?"

"No, but I think that it's magical or at least supernatural in some way for it to have this intense of an effect on the nature, and also from the brilliance of the imprints." Luna sheathed her wand. "Are you feeling courageous enough to seek them out directly, or would you like to just get close enough for us to pin down it's signature for later?"

Harry thought about this, fiddling with the torch. "I think that we should wait until its daylight to seriously track the thing. If it's scary enough to make this much of the forest quiet from its mere presence, then I don't think it would be smart to take it on in the night time."

Luna nodded. "I like your logic. Just follow me while I make a sweep and keep your eyes open in case it decides to stalk us."

He swallowed, a little afraid now, and nodded. She started creeping forward, waving her wand back and forth in slow sweeps.

They walked in the woods in whatever direction her wand 'pulled' her for some time, Harry wasn't sure how much. The rain had picked up and was falling around them in little streams as it poured off of the slick leaves and onto their heads.

Luna gasped and stood stock still. "It's just up there, Harry! I can see it!" she hissed, gripping his hand with her own clammy one.

He squinted and looked very hard at where she was pointing, his mouth falling open. It was huge! The shadows concealed just how big it was, but from what he could see, it was bigger than he remembered grizzly bears to be, and there was a distinctly sharper silhouette to it.

"What is it?" She whispered, waving her wand yet again. Something gleamed quicksilver for a second and then slipped into her wand. "Whatever it is, we'll be able to find it again after this."

"I think it's a…a _wolf."_ Harry whispered back, squeezing her hand and leading her silently away from the creature before it could notice them. When they were far enough away, they broke into a dead run and ran until they broke the cover of the trees.

Bending to place his hands on his knees, Harry took deep gasping breaths. "God, that thing was huge! I've never heard of a wolf that size before."

"Me neither, although Nordic mythology does speak of giant wolves…" Luna ran out of breath and had to start gasping. "Let's forget about the wolf for now, shall we? I'd like to get a full night of sleep if I can, and thinking about a harbinger of death and destruction the size of a car is not going to make that happen."

Harry grinned. "That sounds more than okay to me. Hey, if you're still up to it, we could go into Forks again and buy some groceries."

"And check out that Outdoor Equipment store you pointed out earlier, too, before it closes." Luna added.

He blinked. "Wow, I didn't think you heard me when I pointed it out earlier."

She laughed. "Of course I heard you. I pay attention all the time; I just don't process it all at once. I still get pieces of conversations that people had around me when I was a little kid and started daydreaming in the middle of what they had to say."

"That's a useful skill, I guess."

Luna shook her hair out of her eyes. "Thanks. Now, let's go to Forks before that place closes. I'm going to be pissed if we walk all the way over there only to find out that they're closed for the night."

Harry pulled out his watch. "Well, it's only 4:30, so they should still be open by the time we get there, unless these small towns close stuff early."

She hummed under her breath and started walking, holding out her hand for him to hold. "You have nice, warm hands."

"Thanks." He smiled down at her, feeling kind of warm on the inside too. This trip was a really good idea overall- he felt more human already.

000

"Jerry, I'd like you to do a background check on two names for me." Charlie Swan said to one of his officers in the break-room, selecting a cream-filled donut to go with his coffee. "Print out the results and put them on my desk as soon as you can." And with that he handed him a slip of paper with the two British teenagers' names written out on it in neat print.

"Sure thing, Chief." Jerry replied, folding up the newspaper and going back into the office area of the tiny Forks police station. Sitting down in his chair, he unfolded the piece of paper and chuckled at the name 'Lovegood'. "Poor kid must have had hippie parents or something…"

Typing the words into the database, he waited for the results to come up. And then he waited, and waited some more. Finally, his window revealed that neither of them existed.

"Uh…oh man, the Chief is not going to like this."

000

Bella organized the new stock of fishing rods into neat rows and re-organized the merchandise that had been fiddled with by customers that were too lazy to put things back where they found them.

Her neck itched where the orange work vest rubbed abrasively against it, and she realized half-way through her second box of fishing rods that she was utterly bored. Not just with her job, but with school and trying to pretend that she was okay around her father because she felt guilty if she burdened him with her grief.

She clenched her hand into a fist around the nearest fishing rod, making the metal creak ominously.

Who cared if her control slipped around people? She'd been hurt, deeply, and only buried it deep inside herself, where it'd eaten away at her heart and turned her into a zombie. Sure, when her friendship with Jacob had provided some light, she'd lied to herself that he was melting any ice that she might have built up and was re-birthing her heart for her.

But that wasn't true, was it? Jacob couldn't bring back her heart, no matter how he may have felt about her before he shut her out completely in favor of doing god-knows-what with Sam Uley. Were Edward to suddenly appear next to her in the shop and say that he wanted her back, that wouldn't fix her either.

"It's my own fault." She whispered out loud.

"Huh? Did you say something, Bella?" Mike asked, his head popping up from where he'd propped it on his palms by the check-out counter.

"I'm just talking to myself!" She called, and went back to arranging the fishing rods. Edward could go rot in hell for being such a heartless dick, and Jacob too! She was wasting the best years of her life because of a boy breaking up with her, and this was going to stop right now.

Although their relationship was a tad more extraordinary than those of her peers, the same principles should have applied to it all the same. They would break up, be upset, and then gradually get their lives back together and start seeing other people. Why did she feel the need to live in a coma with her body on autopilot during her first year as an adult, a year meant to be an exciting time of self-discovery?

"This is ridiculous." She muttered, stalking into the storage room with the empty box that had once contained the fishing rods. She stashed it where she was supposed to and took a moment to loiter in the gloom; just enjoying the endorphin rush that he epiphany had given her.

Starting today, she was a new woman. In fact, today, for the first time since she'd caught sight of Edward Cullen, she was her _own _woman.

"Bella! We have customers!" Mike yelled from the front, and she groaned before straightening her vest and emerging into the fluorescent-glare of the store front. Standing there next to the fishing rods, which still gleamed without a speck of dust on them yet, was the blonde girl that her dad had pointed out to her at lunch that day.

Her eyes roving as she moved closer to ask her if she needed assistance, she spotted her male companion in the shoes section, examining a pair of green galoshes fit for wading in water with.

"Hi there! Would you like any help?" She asked, still a little bit high from her endorphins. She could feel Mike staring at her from behind the counter, obviously not expecting her to show any sign of genuine emotion.

She looked up from the fishing rod, her curious gray-colored eyes pinning Bella to the floor with their otherworldly intensity. Bella swallowed.

"You're Bella Swan from the diner earlier today, right?" She asked in that wispy voice of hers, pulling back her hood and letting a thick braid of blonde hair spill out over one shoulder. There were lots of loose ends sticking to her face from the rain, and she looked a little bit crazed, like she'd just had a scare.

"Yeah; I'm embarrassed, but I don't remember your name…is it Laura?"

"Luna. You were close enough." Luna smiled at her, and her friend came over to them with the galoshes under her arm. He smiled at her and then poked Luna's arm. "Yes, Harry?"

"I found you some galoshes. I'm not sure if they're the right size, but they look pretty close." He nodded to Bella. "Do you have these in either a 5 and a half or a six?"

Startled at being asked for help, she nodded and led them back to the rack of green shoes. Luna started stroking the rubber, seeming to like the texture, while Bella rifled through them until she found a pair in size six, women's."

"Here you are!"

"Thanks. We'll buy them." Luna said without trying them on, swaying towards the counter. Bella followed, leaving Harry to wander around the store a little bit more. He went into the tent section and in the bait barrels and finally came up to the counter where Mike was ringing up the galoshes. He wrapped his arm around Luna and gave her a squeeze, which she leaned into.

"Are you still scared?" He asked quietly, not seeming to care that they were standing in front of two strangers.

"Just a little tiny bit. Do you know what we should buy from the store? We should probably start packing sandwiches instead of eating out at lunch, and figure out new solutions for dinner until I calculate how long we'll be here."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "How will the length of our visit alter our food options?"

"Well, I was planning to rent a small house or flat if we're staying here for more than a few weeks, just for the sake of making everything easier."

"That makes sense." He nodded. "Thanks!" he said to Mike, taking the plastic bag with the galoshes and guiding his blonde friend towards the door. "Bye, Bella!"

"Bye…" she replied faintly, her rush fading a little bit and leaving behind the horrible feeling of being robbed. Months had passed since she'd last properly smiled for no reason at all or woken up in the morning, happy to be alive. Those were precious months of her youth that she was never going to get back or have a chance to redeem, so from now on she needed to live a fuller life.

Taking off her vest and helping Mike close down the shop; she rolled the idea of making some new friends who didn't have any pre-conceived notions of her around in her mind. The two British teens, if they were friendly enough and wanted company, just might be the answer to restoring her desire for social interaction.

000

End chapter 8

I'm a feminist. Can anybody tell? Kidding…


	9. Chapter 9

A/N: I am sorry for not updating for a couple of days, but my only sister was getting married and I was the maid-of-honor. I've been either too exhausted, too drunk, or not home at all and was therefore unable to write even a little of this.

CHAPTER 9

Luna joined Harry at their table on the first floor, and he handed her the plate of toast he'd grabbed for her before the food was put away by the scant staff.

"Thanks!" She mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. After they'd walked to the bed and breakfast last night, she'd stayed up late reading with the torch so Harry could sleep in peace.

"Don't mention it." Harry murmured. He flipped to another page in the local news, and raised his eyebrows at the small article containing several interviews with people that had seen large animal tracks in the woods unlike anything they'd ever seen before, said to be similar to a giant dog. "Hey, read this and tell me if it reminds you of anything."

She slurped on her coffee and took it from him, laying it beside her toast to read. Her eyes scanned the article swiftly, and she gurgled a little bit before swallowing. "Damn it!"

"I know." Harry blandly commented. "If they really are magical beasts, then they're breaking the Statute of Secrecy and endangering our entire society. We should report this, even though I hate going through government processes."

Luna held up a finger. "Not so fast. They might just be a natural phenomenon, or are already registered and being fined as we speak. There's no need for us to rush off like good little children and tattle on them."

He stared at her, incredulous. "I can't believe that you just said that. I know that you are very pro-Creature Rights, and so am I, but don't you think that this case isn't one that can be overlooked so carelessly? Those things are huge!" He sighed. "I think that you're being very foolish about this."

She didn't answer, merely re-folding the newspaper into the shape it'd come in, and stood up from her chair. She took the plate of toast with her and headed for the stairs, not looking back.

Left alone at the table, Harry stared after her, gob smacked. Perhaps he really had gone too far in judging her decision so quickly, but how else was he supposed to react to her deliberately allowing obviously dangerous creatures go unstopped?

He sighed and stood up, tucked the newspaper under his arm, and followed her upstairs. She was the one with the key, after all, and they should work things out now before she decided to punish him by making him spend the night in the hall when night fell.

Brushing his knuckles against the door twice, hesitating, he finally worked up the courage and knocked.

"What do you want?" Luna's voice sounded frightfully close, and he realized that she must be either standing directly on the other side of the door or sitting on the carpeted floor. He sank to his knees below the doorknob and knocked, gently this time, again.

"Luna?"

He could hear her sniffle and felt like he'd been punched in the stomach. Why was he such an utter louse? "Luna, I wanted to apologize for being insensitive…I talk without thinking sometimes, and I'm very sorry that I hurt you."

She sniffled again, and then the door opened a bare crack. One watery eye looked out at him and then she scooted closer and kissed his nose through the opening. "It's alright. I just got reminded of some things that people have said to me in the past that were very hurtful and reacted."

Harry stroked her forehead, not caring what they must have looked like, two kids on the floor on opposite sides of a half-open door. "Sorry that I made you think of whatever it was. Were the people who said those things to you classmates at Hogwarts?"

She nodded, still a little shaky with emotion but visibly calming down. "You're not insensitive, Harry. You're one of the most considerate people I know, and its one of the reasons that I am your friend. When nobody else wanted to see me as a rational human being, you gave me a chance to prove my credibility."

His heart hurt a little bit at her admission. "I shouldn't have had to give you a chance- you have so much to give the world and your perspective has always widened my mind in ways I never could have reached without you. You're a blessing, and I never regretted becoming your friend."

Her cheeks were a little bit pink and she reached for his hand, squeezing it. "You think that _I'm _a blessing, Mr. I-Saved-the-World?"

He laughed. "Oh come on, I had help with that one. You are who you are just because."

The door opened all the way and he could see her shuffling to the side. "Come on in; you don't have to sit out here in the hall. Do you want to go out to the woods again today to work or should we just take it easy?"

"I think we should take some time to de-stress. How about we go into the woods for part of the day just for fun, without meaning to target anything?"

She started to perk up a little bit, and gratefully accepted the hanky that he pulled out of his jeans pocket. There were some rips along the cuffs and the knees from wear and tear, not to mention that almost all of the dye was gone by now from all of the rigorous washing he'd put them through. Dried blood was a bitch to clean, after all.

"Oh, if the rain made any little ponds or if there's a creek, we can go skinny dipping!"

He looked at her blankly for a moment before turning red and smacking her upside the head. "Luna! I like you but not enough to see you naked!"

"Okay, okay." She grumbled. "We'll swim separately."

"But…" he floundered for another excuse. "It's cold here!"

Luna gave him a dirty look and stood up, towering over him briefly. "Harry Potter, are you being a coward about this? I know you, and a little bit of cold is not something that would keep you from swimming. What's your real reason?"

He groaned. No matter what, she always managed to wedge the truth out of him eventually. "I just…I can't think of those woods as harmless and the thought of being naked and vulnerable in them is unsettling for me."

"Why didn't you say so?" Luna demanded with her voice a little quieter than usual. She then switched to twisting her hands into her latest long skirt, one that she had no family background excuse for. It had little clouds along the bottom. "I wish that you would be more forthcoming with me."

"Sorry." He shrugged. "But you know what, I think I just might give skinny-dipping a shot. But don't get me wrong," he hastened to add, "If some mythical beast rips me to shreds, I am haunting you until the day you die."

Luna rolled her eyes and left to get her backpack. "Oh, whatever you say, idiot."

000

It was a stupidly nice day, Harry decided when he emerged from the bed and breakfast with Luna arranging their packed sandwiches in her bag. There was even a little bit of sun peeking out of the clouds today and a warm breeze.

"This must be a freak accident of some kind." He breathed. "There is no way that this is normal out here."

She raised her head from her purse and hissed at him.

"What?"

"Don't jinx it! I don't want to swim with lightning going on, so this sunlight is really helping me out here." She was apparently satisfied with her purse because she placed it back on her shoulder and descended the steps in a huff that he could fortunately tell was false.

"If it'll make you happy…" He pretended to sulk before laughing. He took her arm and used it to propel her across the street, skipping.

Their pace through the woods was much more leisurely this time, and after a few hours of comfortable walking, they stumbled across a small pond, which was really little more than an engorged puddle.

"Ladies first." Harry tried to be gallant, but failed miserably when Luna shook her head at him. "Now what's the problem? Does the pond have to be extra special for you to be naked in it?"

She chewed on her lip, and then admitted, "I know that this is going to sound bratty, but this just isn't the right pond for me. You should take this one, and I'll go look for the next one. I'll come back to get you when I'm done, or you can call my name if you get bored before then."

"You expect me to let you wander these woods by yourself?" Harry teased, ducking when she took a playful swing at his head. She got him once he relaxed and he stuck out his lips at her.

"Yes, I do. Now don't have too much fun!" she laughed merrily and took off into the trees, disappearing from sight a few minutes later. Everything seemed much stiller and isolated with her gone, but it was pleasant because of the sun.

If it'd been overcast or raining, the atmosphere would have been decidedly creepier.

Shrugging and still a little disbelieving at himself that he'd essentially let Luna bully him into doing this even when she wasn't there to watch him, he set down his bag and sat on a dry patch of soft leaves to take off his boots and socks. Barefoot at last after a brief violent war with his laces, he pulled off his shirt and trousers.

He was still wearing his underwear…did he really have to do this naked?

"God damn it…" He muttered, shucking off his shorts and gingerly toeing the water. It was cool, but not nearly as cold as he was expecting. It felt good on his skin and he grabbed his wand and stuck it behind his ear before moving deeper into it.

The water only came up to his hips, and the way it sloshed around with his movements was more than a tiny bit embarrassing.

He just stood there for a few moments before swearing under his breath and flopped back. His body sank under the water, but when he relaxed, he rose to the surface and floated there on its surface, with ripples of water passing over his face occasionally.

"This is nice…" He mumbled, happy to be able to say that out loud without looking like a weirdo.

When he got tired of floating, he played with the leaves floating on the surface of the glorified puddle, twisting them around in his hands and admiring the way the water had made them a little mushy. Although the sun was still lingering, it'd been joined by some more extensive clouds and now spent most of its time with its face hidden.

A twig snapped, breaking his happy daze.

His head whipped towards the sound, catching sight of someone just before they hid behind a tree. Their gender was ambiguous at this point, but judging from the flash of form he'd seen, they were rather on the tall side.

He blushed. Oh god! He was alone in the woods with some pervert! He straightened his shoulders. He wasn't just going to let this pass unaccounted for; he was a Gryffindor, for fuck's sake!

With his courage fully prodded into co-operation, he boldly yelled, "Oi! You, over there behind that tree! Yeah, you! I can see you! You ought to be ashamed of yourself!"

Unexpectedly, since he hadn't thought that far ahead, the pervert responded, "I'm sorry to have disturbed you…I didn't realize that you were, ah, unclothed." Their voice was hard to pin down, with a strange under-accent that spoke of a high upbringing. They could have been male, but after some awkward situations, Harry wasn't willing to peg their gender until he was absolutely positive.

The person sounded as embarrassed as Harry was, so he relaxed a little bit, even though he knew that that was a bad idea. He was filled with the same burning curiosity that had gotten him into so many scrapes in the past, and desperately wanted to see the supposed-pervert's face. They'd already seen him naked, so it was only fair for him to see their face. "It's alright, you just scared me. I'm covered now," he sank lower into the water, "so you can come out from behind that tree."

"Ah…are you sure?"

Harry shrugged. "It's your choice." Beneath the causal words, his curiosity bubbled like a tea kettle and demanded to be fed. "But I'd like to see you, if you don't mind."

Hesitantly, the figure moved out from behind the tree and took several steps in his direction. He, since he was rather obviously male now, was taller than Harry had thought and had soft-looking blonde hair.

Under his eyes were faint bruise-like markings, which made the amber color stick out all the more.

Harry stiffened.

"Again, I apologize for upsetting you. My name is Jasper Hale."

000

End chapter 9

I hope this consoles you all.


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

Harry grinned, starting to relax when he realized how pleased Luna would be once he told her that he'd encountered one of the elusive 'vegetarian' Vampires. "Well, it's nice to meet you properly, Mr. Hale. I'm Harry Potter."

The man, Jasper, nodded. "It's a pleasure. Did you…" he hesitated before continuing, "need to see me any more or would you like to be left in peace now?"

"Well…" Harry dithered, wondering how he could convince this guy to stay longer so he could let Luna catch sight of him. "What are you doing out in the woods today? Hiking?"

He seemed a little bit thrown by the unexpected question, but answered anyway, "Yes. I was hoping to see some grizzly bears, actually. They're very fierce up here, but very beautiful all the same."

Harry chewed his lip and nodded. "I'll bet they are. Is this some kind of haunt of theirs?"

"Considering that most animals enjoy spending time around bodies of water for various reasons, yes. I was expecting to find some bears drinking from this pond instead of a swimming human." He seemed amused, although he still held himself stiffly as far from Harry as possible.

"Would you like to wait with me for some time? I wasn't planning on getting out anytime soon and it might be better for me not to be alone if one decides to come our way."

Jasper hesitated and then shrugged, unable to think of a reason why he shouldn't. "Alright." he made to sit on the grass where he was and Harry found himself hissing slightly. Jasper froze.

"Come closer." He explained, sliding deeper into the water and jerking his head towards where his backpack and clothes were folded.

"Uh…" he shuffled closer, sitting against the tree beside Harry's bag, and stared out at the trees. "So why are you in the forest today?"

"Well, a friend of mine from school decided to go on a research trip here. There are some really _interesting _creatures living in these woods." Harry smiled, unable to keep himself from making that comment.

Jasper's amber eyes narrowed before he turned his attention to the grass he was sitting on. He tore up a few blades and shredded them into tiny pieces, tossing them into the air and letting the breeze carry them away.

"Where is your friend, then, if you came here together?"

Harry shrugged and laughed a little nervously. "I was too embarrassed to swim with her without clothes, so she's at the nearest other pond by herself." The blonde stiffened a little bit, so Harry rushed to reassure him, though he wasn't sure why. "We're not together or anything; we're just really good friends."

Jasper nodded silently. "I understand- I have someone who's a lot like that, except that we used to be more."

"Oh? Do you want to talk about it?" Harry asked, not sure if he was allowed to say that by the rules of polite society but deciding that it didn't matter because there had been a raw edge to the blonde's voice as he spoke of this person, and he never could stand by and let someone else suffer.

"I don't want to bother you with my problems-" Jasper tried to protest, his soft voice going even quieter until Harry cut him off.

"I'm asking if you want to talk about it; that's pretty much open permission to dump whatever personal baggage or steamer trunks you have onto my willing shoulders." Harry softened his eyes and smiled sweetly at the near-stranger. He didn't know Jasper, but he might as well get them onto friendlier turf if he expected to make interrogating him nicely about the way his kind of Vampire lived easier in the long-run.

"Okay then." He smiled a little bit before looking back down at his hands shyly. "Until recently, I was married to a woman named Alice, and we were happy being married, but it still didn't feel quite right to me. We were married for some time, and all this time I had more friend-like feelings for her than romantic ones but I kept quiet about it because I thought that she was in love with me and I didn't want to hurt her."

"What happened?" Harry pushed when he trailed off, daring to gently touch his hand with his wet one.

"One day, roughly 9 months ago, she confessed to me that she had developed a crush of sorts on someone else, and then we had our first honest conversation about our relationship and decided that it was for the best if we remained partners outside of marriage." He shrugged. "It was kind of funny, though, that we'd both been privately agonizing over something that we could have solved years and years ago if we'd both been a little more self-centered."

"Yeah, it's funny how people don't tell you that kind of useful stuff growing up, about how much good that can come from honestly telling people how you feel or think about the important things." Harry agreed, twirling his pointer finger in the mud and making little circular designs. A moment later, Jasper joined him, their fingers 'crashing' into each other occasionally. The Vampire's hands were very cool, roughly the same temperature as the air.

"True, but people can get hurt by honesty as well."

Harry squeezed his hand around his bit of mud tight until it came through the gaps of his fingers, remembering how much Dumbledore had kept from him simply because he deemed it to be the best decision. If he'd had half of that information, he could have done so much more for the war and saved the world so much misery and death.

"What are you thinking of? You're tense…I mean, you look tense." Jasper leaned a little bit closer, and Harry noticed that he wasn't breathing. Maybe he smelled bad or something.

"Oh, I was just remembering someone I used to trust implicitly who betrayed that by not being honest with me about a lot of very personal and important things." Jasper straightened suddenly and made to stand up. Harry wondered if he'd said something uncomfortable, and hastened to apologize. "I'm sorry for being so raw."

"It's not that. Were you expecting your friend back at some point?"

Harry raised his eyebrows, impressed. Jasper had apparently already sensed that Luna was approaching. "She said that she would come fetch me when she got bored, yes."

"Maybe I'd better go, then…"

He sat straight up in the pond, suddenly uncaring of his naked chest. "No! You don't have to go; she'd love to meet you. She's a really friendly girl, and we'd like to meet more forest enthusiasts."

Jasper paused and then sat back down, smiling a private little smile that made something funny happen to Harry's stomach. "Alright, you've convinced me. She'd better not be naked, though. I think I've had my fill of nakedness for the day."

Harry laughed outright. "Are you kidding me? No one ever gets their fill of nakedness! I consider it to be one of things that make life worthwhile."

The Vampire looked at him strangely and raised his eyebrows. "And to think, you had the absolute nerve to call _me _a pervert."

Before Harry could defend his honor, Luna came tromping into view, thankfully dressed in the skirt but missing her shirt, singing some sort of Muggle song.

"My baby shot me down, bang bang…" She trailed off, staring unapologetically at Jasper. Her eyes trailed from his blonde hair to his amber eyes that matched her wards, to his entire lanky body. She smiled and came closer, holding out her hand to shake. "Hello there!"

"Hello." He looked a little bit daunted by her hand but shook it quickly anyway, wrenching his hand away. "I'm Jasper Hale, and you must be Harry's friend."

"Yes, I'm Luna Lovegood. Has he told you how pleased we are to have met you? We've been looking for you or someone like you for the past few days and we'd really appreciate it if you would answer some discreet questions for us."

Jasper looked kind of stunned, and Harry quietly groaned. The Vampire's head whipped over to him and he instinctively stroked his shoulder, bending his head towards him and saying in that low polite voice of his, "Don't be upset, please, I don't mind answering whatever questions you might have. I'll even guide you guys through the forest if you need it." He rubbed his thumb along the nub of Harry's collarbone where it connected to his shoulders, smiling faintly. "Come on, cheer up."

"I wasn't upset." Harry tried to object, but Jasper clearly wasn't buying it. Was that some kind of Vampire talent that he didn't know about?

"Yes you were. Now, how about you get dressed and then we'll have a nice little chat about the forest and whatever else you're curious about." Jasper smiled at him again and had the audacity to poke his cheek with the tip of his cool pale finger. "Smile."

Harry, much against his will, complied and then shooed them both away. "You've already seen everything there is to see, Jasper, but if you don't go with Luna and make sure that she doesn't try to peek, she will find some way to spy on me just because she knows that it irritates me." he sighed. "Oh, woe is me."

Luna smacked him upside the head. "Shut your trap. Come with me, Jasper."

Once he was dressed, his clothes sticking uncomfortably to him because he was still damp, he called for them to come back. Luna appeared first, laughing at something Jasper said while he leaned down slightly towards her.

An ugly feeling built in his chest that he recognized with surprise- it was jealousy. He shoved it down, dismissing it as irrational, and put a big smile on his face. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Jasper's family, his brother Emmett in particular. Apparently he's quite the dare-devil and enjoys heckling the grizzlies." Luna hooked one arm through his and gave it a squeeze. "Jasper, would you like to come with us to lunch? We can talk in a more civilized area than in the middle of the woods."

He tensed up a little bit. "Well, I'd really rather not go into town."

Luna didn't miss a beat. "That's fine. We packed sandwiches for lunch anyways and it'd be a waste to toss them in the bin."

Jasper smiled again, his eyes flicking from Luna to Harry. "There's a nice log that's fairly comfortable to sit on a few yards in that direction."

"You really do know this forest, don't you?" Luna practically sang, skipping in the direction he'd indicated. Harry smiled and shook his head, the monster in his chest appeased when he realized that Jasper was waiting for him, with an almost shy look in his eyes.

He walked over to him and they followed Luna side by side.

"So…" Jasper started.

"Yeah?" Harry asked, sitting down on one end of the log so that Jasper could sit between him and Luna.

"Nothing." He smiled, watching Harry pull out his sandwich. It was just jam and butter on cheap bread, but he was hungry and tore into it vigorously. He almost offered some to Jasper but stopped himself just in time. Luna might have a plan about how to do this, but he personally wasn't sure how to approach the issue of Jasper's Vampire status in a polite and non-threatening way.

"So, Jasper, where do you live? Do you live close by or are you a tourist like us?" Luna piped up before delicately nibbling on the crust of her sandwich.

"Um, my family is living in Alaska right now, but I had a bit of a tiff with one of my sisters and decided to come here to blow off some steam, since the State of Alaska just isn't big enough for the both of us. I was planning on leaving tomorrow, since I feel pretty calm and forgiving right now, but I'm willing to stay and help you guys out." He smiled at them, the picture of charm.

"You are way too kind." Luna replied in a false swanky accent, patting his knee. "Now, about those questions…?"

"Yes! Ask away while my good mood lasts."

Luna laughed and rested her sandwich in her lap in order to free up her hands so she could brush crumbs off of her undershirt. "Well, what we're most interested in is your nutrition, specifically why, if you can get the same amount from animals as humans, more Vampires don't choose to abstain from human blood?"

Jasper stood up from the log so fast he blurred, and took two large steps away from them. "What…how do you know these things?"

Luna shrugged while Harry bit his lip and pleaded with his eyes from Jasper to come back over to him. "It's not hard to tell what you are, but since you're technically harmless in all the ways that matter, we're not afraid of you or intending to report you."

"Report me to whom?" Jasper whispered, still looking confused and more than a little like a wild animal that's been cornered.

"The Ministry, or whatever they have in this country. Jasper, we'd just like to know so we can write some articles and maybe even a small book on this anomaly. It's not everyday that a witch gets to meet a Vampire that's defied their very nature." Luna stood up, walking slowly towards him while Harry stayed on the log, subtly opening his palms and twitching his fingers in an inviting gesture to the Vampire.

Luna lightly laid her fingers against Jasper's forearm, his raincoat crinkling at the touch. "Don't be afraid of us, Jasper. We like you very much already and we just want to know a little bit about you." She coaxed him back to the log, seating him much closer to Harry and scooting close as well.

He stared blankly at his feet, possibly in a minor form of shock.

"If you'd like, we can answer any questions that you have for us." Harry murmured, pressing his face briefly to the Vampire's shoulder. "Please don't be shy."

Still a little bit torn-looking, Jasper sighed. "In answer to your question, animal blood is less appealing and requires more frequent feedings in order to properly nourish. Human blood is still desirable, and I am a little unused to animal blood, but it can be done with a lot of determination."

Luna nodded, but Jasper didn't see her because he'd finally lifted his eyes off of his feet and fixated them on Harry. "Sometimes I come across a human whose blood is foreign-smelling or simply unappealing. This is often caused by substance abuse or large amounts of medication or medical procedures, such as chemo treatments for cancer. You, for instance, smell strange but pleasant to me."

He inhaled, and looked bitter. "If I hadn't just fed, I would be having some serious complications right now."

"I'll keep that in mind." Harry whispered hoarsely.

000

End chapter 10


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

"What is it, Jerry?" Charlie asked without looking up from his miniature TV, which was playing a garbled and fuzzy baseball game. "If this is about those teenagers, I already know that they're English tourists."

"Those people you told me to check up on don't have any records, not even travel records from England to America." Jerry shifted his weight from one foot to the other nervously when several seconds went by without the Chief saying anything.

"How can they not have any records? I've met them!"

Jerry shrugged helplessly. "I don't know, Chief. Maybe they're, you know, shady?"

Chief Swan leveled him with the most exasperated look he had ever seen, and Jerry immediately felt like an idiot for even suggesting that they were anything more than a couple of teenagers.

"I highly doubt that. They simply don't have the right feel to them for me to see them as criminals." He crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair. "Check again. I'll keep my eyes open for them, and find some way to find out why they're off of the government records."

"Okay." Jerry nodded and high-tailed it out of there before the Chief could make him do anything else.

Alone in his office, Charlie sighed and rubbed his eyes, his mind wandering through all of the possible reasons for two seemingly-innocent kids to be completely blank in any records system.

000

It'd been several remarkably short hours on their log, and Jasper had been fairly forthcoming with his answers to the questions they asked, but he still kept the details fuzzy as to why their family had left the forest in the first place despite the rarity of such an opportune location.

"Is there any possibility of your family returning to Forks?" Luna asked, not even bothering to ask for any more clarity on his family's personal business.

He shrugged, looking away from Harry to meet her eyes. "I honestly can't answer that. I can say that, right now, it is very improbable. If we do return, it will probably be only a fraction of our family and quite a few years from now, after those who remember us are dead or too old to remember."

"That sounds sensible, although I am a little bit disappointed." Luna sighed, lifting one foot and swinging it from side to side to work the life back into it once she realized that it'd fallen asleep. She winced as the blood entered that pins-and-needles phase.

"I'm sorry." Jasper sounded genuine, even though it was a little bit hard to tell from his smooth face. Vampires apparently were not the type to express emotion through facial expressions very much.

"Oh, it's alright." Harry reassured him. "We're pretty fortunate to have met you at all."

Jasper smiled at him. "You're not the only fortunate one." Behind him, Luna opened her mouth as if to say something, but bit her lip and choose to silently grin instead.

"I, ah…will you be coming back here sometime?" Harry changed the subject, feeling a little bit warm despite the cool wind and darkening sky. Jasper's smile widened, and he subtly shifted closer to him, the air moving his scent towards Harry, making him think of Neville's hothouse flowers and Trelawney's sleep-inducing incense. It was all rather dazzling, Harry decided, and he used that as an excuse for the lazy answering smile that suddenly pulled at his lips.

"I'd like to, if you would like to ask me some more questions, or need anything else from me."

"Well, Luna and I will be in the area for quite some time, so we'd love to see you again the next time you are free." Harry volunteered, forcing his eyes to remain fully open despite the sudden heaviness of his eyelids. His voice still came out as more of a purr than real words, which was both irritating and surprising because he didn't want to acknowledge why his own body was turning against him.

Jasper seemed fascinated, his eyes darting from one of Harry's eyes to the other. "That would be nice. You're both very interesting people, and I'd love to ask you some questions the next time we meet."

"Why don't you bring a sister or a brother the next time?" Luna suggested, rubbing her ankle and frowning.

"Are you alright? You're frustrated about something." Jasper tore his eyes away from Harry's fascinating range of emotions to look at Luna.

"I've just lost feeling in my ankle, and even though it hurts, it still feels asleep." He nodded and then reached out and squeezed it with his cold hand. She jumped. "Oh, thank you!"

"You're welcome. Where are you two staying, in case I can't find you in the woods next time?"

Luna answered before Harry could, "We're staying at the bed and breakfast in Orwell, under the names of Potter and Lovegood. However, since we can't stay there forever, we are considering finding a house somewhere to rent. We will leave a note at the front desk, though, with our telephone number and new address in case we've moved by the time you come back."

"That's good to know. What other kinds of research are you going to be doing around here besides my kind of Vampire?" Jasper stood, straightening the collar of his gray jacket.

Luna had started digging into her backpack for her sweater since she was getting cold, so Harry answered, "We saw some really interesting plant growths here which we're going to document and sample for a friend of ours who's kind of a plant whizz, and also there are just a lot of interesting animals to observe and possibly photograph."

"Yeah, and don't forget the giant wolves." Luna piped up, her voice muffled by her sweater as she pulled it over her head.

Jasper clenched his teeth hard enough for them to grind audibly. "_Giant wolves?"_

"Oh yeah, they're massive!" Luna enthused, pretending not to notice Jasper's increasing chagrin. "Don't tell me that you've never seen one."

"I haven't. They must be new." Jasper replied, distracted. "I'm sorry, but I must get going now. Something has come up. It was a pleasure meeting both of you and I will most definitely be seeing both of you in the future."

His eyes wandered furtively over Harry, and he started when he found Harry smiling knowingly at him.

"Good-bye."

And with that, he took off running, seeming more like he was flying a few feet off of the ground than actually touching it like a mere mortal.

Harry sighed, staring at the spot where he'd last been until Luna smacked him.

"Come on, you. I know you've got a crush-"

He choked.

"But we've got to get going before it gets too dark."

000

Two weeks of house-hunting by himself later while Luna wandered the woods and masquerading as a nineteen-year-old with a fake I.D., he finally found a reasonable little place with hideous wallpaper and shag carpet that would do nicely. Sure, it wasn't the most fashionable place to live, but it had a kitchen with a stove and running water, and that was good enough.

"Luna, I found us a little nest." He greeted his friend when she stumbled into their hotel room. She looked at him blankly for a second before she processed what he'd said and let out a whoop of joy.

He found himself pinned to the bed by a wet and muddy Luna, who was shrieking incoherently and gripping his hair.

"I am so excited! Harry, this will be my first time having a house all of my own, just like a real adult!"

Harry laughed, because he didn't know what else to do, even though it was really starting to hurt from the way she was pulling his hair. Finally, he couldn't hold back a wince. "Babes, I'm excited too, but can you please take a little bit of the pressure off of my hair?"

"Oh! Sorry, honey." She giggled and rolled off of him, sprawling out on their bed and staring up at the ceiling, a big smile on her face. "What's it like?"

"It's a shit hole, but it has running water and a decent bed, not to mention a kitchen we can make more than sandwiches in, so I think you'll like it."

"Hey, don't call our nest a shit hole." Luna poked his side with her finger, which felt more like an icicle than flesh from the cold outside. "Where is it, anyway? Is it in this town or…?"

"It's in Forks."

"Oh, joy. We'll have to put some serious effort in dodging that police Chief now, Duck or Robin or whatever."

"Swan." Harry corrected gently, turning his head to look at her and rubbing some of her hair through her fingers. "Your hair is getting darker."

"Is it? I suppose it must be the lack of sun. My hair color really is more of a dirty blonde without the sun's help." Luna mused, biting her fingernail and then fumbling in the side table for her packet of cigarettes.

"Must you do that? I thought you said that you were going to try and quit." Harry pointed out, sounding a little bit like a peevish housewife.

She rolled her eyes at him. "Please don't nag, Harry. I've had a tiring day."

"Indeed? Were the trees especially tree-like today?" He teased, raising himself up and propping himself up on his elbow. When she didn't answer right away, he frowned and tweaked her nose. "Alright, what happened?"

Luna rolled onto her side facing away from him and mumbled something. He could hear the sound of her lighter flicking on and the brief orange glow before she flicked it off and exhaled her first lungful of smoke. He wrinkled his nose at the smell but didn't comment. She never got on his case for leaving his wet towels on the floor of the bathroom after showering or when he used her hairbrush without permission, so he ought to cut her some slack.

"I couldn't hear you, sweetie." He stroked some hair away from her ear and craned his neck to kiss her cheek. "Are you upset or just tired?"

She groaned and rolled back over to look at him, inhaling and then exhaling to the side so she wouldn't make his eyes water from the smoke. "Both. I saw another giant wolf today, a really big one."

"Really?" Harry leaned closer excitedly before realizing that he was on the verge of crushing her and backed off. "What did this one look like?"

"It was even bigger than the other one we saw at night, even with the shadows factored in, and a bright russet color. I think it might have seen me, because it hid behind some bushes when I got too close." She sighed and briefly nuzzled his chest. "I was pretty scared afterwards, once my adrenaline wore off."

"Why didn't you come find me?"

She rolled a shoulder up into a shrug and flicked some ashes into the cup of water on the night stand. "I don't know…I just feel really strange about them. I got a peek at it's eyes, and it looked intelligent."

Harry's back stiffened. "Maybe it was an Animagus?"

"I really don't know, but we should be more careful."

He laughed. "Oh, and we could be less careful if it was just a rabid flesh-eating predator?"

"Shut up!" Luna giggled, her somber mood broken. He took her moment of distraction to snatch her cigarette and impulsively dangle it over the glass, out of her reach.

"Hey! Give that back!"

"Ask me nicely, and promise not to go near any wolves by yourself."

She raised an eyebrow and so did he, challenging her.

"Fine, whatever, I promise. Now give me that!" she pouted. "Please?"

He handed it back to her reluctantly and then rolled over onto his side of the bed. "Please make yourself less wet and muddy before you go to sleep, okay?"

"Okay."

"We can move into our new house the day after tomorrow, by the way." He mumbled before falling into a doze. He could feel her getting off of the bed, and her chilly lips pressed to his forehead before she went to the bathroom to shower.

He smiled and then frowned when he noticed that the sheets smelled like smoke again.

000

End chapter 11


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

"Okay, you were right- it _is _a shit hole." Luna conceded, hands on her hips and the stub of a cigarette in the corner of her mouth. "But it's ours, so it'll have to do."

"It beats Grimmauld Place." Harry agreed. "This one doesn't have a screaming portrait or an evil house elf out for our blood."

"Or bad memories written into the very walls just waiting to give you nightmares the second you dare to relax; some places are just meant to be torn down after their original master's are gone from this world." Luna added quietly. "Do you have any ideas for where we should buy vital things like a toaster and pans?"

He started at the abrupt change of subject but chose not to push her when she angrily flicked her cigarette out of the window into the rain and immediately lit another one. Today was going to be one of those days. "There's the grocery, and I saw a second-hand shop that might have some stuff."

"That sounds good to me. But for now, let's just go have some lunch and then worry about filling in the twigs for our nest afterwards." She stuffed her lighter back into her pocket and surveyed the house a final time before swinging around and walking towards the door. Her shoes caught on the shag carpet a couple of times, to her irritation and Harry's amusement.

"Just keep walking, Harry."

He sniggered into his collar.

000

The walk to McDonald's wasn't too bad since the weather was cooperating and only gracing them with a genteel misting of water instead of a downpour or miserable drizzle. It started to pour just as they stepped onto the parking lot, though, so they had to make a run for the door.

In his hurry, Harry didn't notice Jacob until he'd smacked into him headlong.

"Ow…" He winced, rubbing his nose, which had been smashed into the taller boy's chest. "You could lay off the muscle-building, mate. Your chest feels like a rock already."

Jacob blushed and reached out to steady him. "I'm really sorry! Are you okay?"

Harry nodded, carefully feeling his nose to see if it was broken or bleeding. Once he was positive he was fine, he poked Jacob in the chest and grinned. "I am serious about the muscles."

"Thanks!"

Luna sighed impatiently, squeezing around them and through the second door. "Are you coming, Harry? Jacob?"

"Oh, I was just leaving, but I'll see you around, right?" Jacob asked, looking from one of them to the other. Harry couldn't be positive, but it looked to him like Jacob was looking at Luna a little funny, like she made him nervous or something.

"Sure. We're based in Forks now, though." Harry answered, smiling despite his misgivings. The other boy bobbed his head, grinning foolishly.

"Cool! I'll see you later." And with that, he dashed out the door into the rain, the door slamming shut behind him.

"Come on, Harry! I am really, really hungry!" Luna snapped, jerking the door for emphasis. He sighed and followed her inside, sparing a look over his shoulder for Jacob, who was already inside his car, where one of his friends was waiting for him, sipping something out a McDonald's cup.

He waved at Harry when he saw him looking, his white teeth glinting even through the gray rain.

Harry waved back before joining Luna at the counter. Since it was one in the afternoon, there wasn't much of a line and they didn't have to wait too long. It was a good thing, because Luna had skipped breakfast and forgotten to pack anything in her endless handbag, leaving her starving.

"Hi! I will have three of your largest hamburgers, and some chips." Luna snapped, elbowing the last customer out of the way when they took too long, lingering over putting their change in the correct wallet compartment.

"Hey, watch it!" the girl, who was on the short side, but not as short as Luna, was wearing a trendy outfit that made it obvious which parts of her she wanted you to look at. "What's your problem, weirdo?"

Luna boldly stole one of the girl's French fries and smiled at her so sweetly that Harry shuddered. That was the self-same look that Mrs. Weasley used when she was about to match-make one of her sons, the same look Hermione wore when she was about to suggest extra revision, and the same look that Ron wore when about to kick your ass in chess.

"Sorry, my mistake, honey." Luna cooed, leaning closer with her eyes wide. "I saw you out of the corner of my eye and thought you weren't the sort of person that deserved the usual pleasantaries." She stole another fry. "I'm Luna. Who're you?"

"J-Jessica Stanley. What do you mean by 'I don't deserve pleasantries'?" She looked more puzzled than angry, which made Harry want to laugh as he sidled around Luna and placed his own order and paid for both of them.

"Well…" Luna rocked back on the balls of her feet, still clearly hormonal out of hunger. "I was insulting you, but you just don't seem to get it."

"That's not nice! What did I do to you?" Jessica snapped, balancing her tray on one hip and glaring at the blonde.

Luna blinked, confused by the question. "Nothing; I'm just pissed off because I'm hungry."

Jessica's mouth opened, closed, and then she shrugged and ate one of her own fries. "That's okay then. Where are you from anyway, Luna? And who's your friend?" she purred her second question, looking at Harry from under her eyelashes and making him feel more than a little naked.

He coughed. "I'm Harry, and you are Jessica?"

"Yeah! It's so cool to meet English people!" She waved someone over, who turned out to be a willowy girl with glasses. "This is my friend Angela, and my other friend Bella will be out here as soon as she's out of the bathroom; Angela, this is Harry, and Luna."

Luna leapt forward and hugged her tightly for no reason. "Hello!"

"Um, hi." Angela squeaked, strangled by Luna's hair and grip. "It's nice to meet you guys. Bella! Come over here!" she waved at someone behind them, and Harry turned to look while he simultaneously pried Luna off of the Muggle girl.

"Oh, we already know Bella." Harry commented, steering Luna over to the counter so she could pick up their food. She immediately unwrapped a burger and devoured it in three bites. Jessica wrinkled her nose and looked away.

"How do you guys, like, know each other?" Jessica asked, sounding a little bit strained and leaning towards Harry. Harry took a subtle step away from her, recognizing her type at last, which brought back memories of a certain girl named Romilda Vane.

"We know her dad a bit, and he introduced us over lunch one day." Luna replied, slurping some milk from a cooling thermos she kept in her bag.

"You know Chief Swan? Did you do something?" Jessica asked, leading the way to a booth.

"No, he was nice enough to give us a ride a ways back when we first arrived. Your father is a lovely man." Luna said empathically to Bella, who jumped and spilled her soda on herself.

"Ah! Sorry, you just startled me, Luna."

Harry handed her some napkins and started dabbing at where it'd spilled on the table, pretending that he couldn't see Jessica watching him and Angela watching her. "How have you been anyways, Bella? I hope you don't mind me saying this, but you look a lot happier than you did the last time we saw you."

"I don't mind at all- you're right." Bella looked at her hands and twisted a small ring around her pinky before continuing, "I went through a difficult time earlier in the year and let myself get depressed over it, cutting off people that cared about me." she smiled brilliantly at her friends then, who seemed surprised but smiled back, even though Jessica's had a bitter tinge to it.

"How about you two? Have you put those galoshes to good use yet?" Bella asked Luna, cautiously lifting her soda and sipping on it.

"Yes, and they're great for keeping the mud out of my socks on the days when it really rains." Luna replied, stealing some of Harry's fries since she had eaten half of Jessica's and all of her own.

"That's good. Do…do you guys want some company, with whatever you two are doing? I'm trying to get out more, and if you are in the woods as well as I, we might as well go together." Bella's question came out rushed, and she immediately added, "And if you don't want me to come along, I totally understand."

"It's alright with me, but I don't know if that would distract Luna or not. Luna?"

The witch tore her eyes away from a ghastly grease stain on her shirt long enough to chew her lip. "You can come on the days when I don't need dead silence, which isn't too much of the time, thankfully. Where do you live?"

"On Glenn Street, Forks."

Harry gaped at her, slack-jawed.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, it's just that we live on the same fucking street." Jessica flinched at his language and he covered his mouth. "Oh, sorry, love. I'm not used to watching my mouth around proper ladies."

Luna reached across the table and smacked his cheek. "Hey!"

He just laughed. "You know I love you, Luna. I'll bet your house is the blue one with that big truck out front, isn't it, Bella?"

"How did you know?" Bella laughed. "You haven't seen me riding in the monster that I know of."

"Yeah, well, I figured that you were the sort of girl that has either an automobile like that or a hippie van."

"Oh?" Bella asked sarcastically, grinning. "And what makes you think that I am this kind of person?"

"Your aura." Harry replied, completely straight-faced.

"Why you…you…!"

He just laughed and ate his lunch, neglecting to tell her that he was being serious. Divination might be a lot of bullshit, but some of it was useful if you knew how to turn it to your advantage.

000

"Okay, we have pans, ladles, a toaster, new sheets…" Luna did an inventory of their grocery cast, checking things off of the list Harry had made up for her while she took a nap after lunch, which they had time for because Bella was sweet enough to drive them home.

"What else are we missing, Luna?" Harry asked, looking at the selection of donuts in the tiny pastry section. There were some jelly ones that looked delicious.

"Um, tomato sauce and apples, in the section you labeled 'food'. Oh! And a broom, but they don't have them here." Luna reached into her pocket and he smacked her hand.

"No more cigarettes!"

"But…" Luna pouted. "I want one!"

"You've had almost half a pack today alone, Luna. Give it a rest and save some for tomorrow. I'll let you have one after dinner and one before bed, alright?" he kissed her nose, sneaking her cigarettes while she was distracted. "And that's my final answer. Everyone has to quit smoking someday, so weaning yourself off now before you turn into a real chain-smoker is better for you in the long run. I'm not doing this to be mean: I'm doing this because I care about you, you silly smoky girl."

Luna sighed. "Fine, but you have to make me a cake to make it up to me, or you and the shag carpet can sleep together."

"You wouldn't do that to me! you don't have the guts."

"We'll see about that, you thief." She smiled slyly, sidling close enough to whisper in his ear while she stole her cigarettes back, "I'll bet that you wouldn't mind sleeping on the shag carpet if Jasper was there, would you?"

Harry blushed and started a fake coughing fit to try and draw attention away from his pink cheeks. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh yes you damn well do. He's blonde and beautiful and immortal and has a lovely personality from what I've seen so far. I don't know what else you could possibly want out of someone."

He glared at her. "Yes, he seems perfect right now, but I've learned to take perfection with a grain of salt. Besides, he's not even gay!"

"And you are?" Luna asked, plucking two cans of tomato sauce off the shelf and tucking them between the dustbin and the sheets packages in their cart.

"I…" Harry faltered and looked away. "Let's just go find someplace that sells brooms before they close."

"Whatever you say, little man, but this conversation is not over."

"Yes it is!" Harry hissed, heading for the fresh fruit section for the apples.

Luna stuck her tongue out at his back.

000

End chapter 12


	13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

Luna slid into bed next to Harry, rolled onto her stomach, and pillowed her face in her arms. She frowned when he didn't look up from his book, and reached down her shirt for her latest cigarette hiding place.

She'd only just flicked on her lighter when Harry's hand snapped out and he stole the stick right from between her lips, tossing it carelessly into the waste bin next to him. Their nightstands were cluttered, a box of orchids under a preserving charm sent by Neville topping a stack of books, surrounded by a forest of tea mugs and picture frames.

They'd been living out of their suitcases at the bed and breakfast out of necessity, lest the maids see something they shouldn't, but now that they could let their guard down, their house was steadily becoming more cluttered every day, and neither of them had the time to clean up after themselves.

"Please stop smoking." He said without preamble, switching his hold on his novel to one hand so he could pet her hair. "You're going to ruin your teeth, and your pretty pink lungs will turn black and you'll die pre-maturely old and shriveled, smelling vile."

Luna shrugged. "Everybody dies: I might as well enjoy myself while I'm here. Besides, they keep me happy."

Harry sighed and closed his book, setting it on the floor. "Don't lie to yourself, Luna. I know that you've been more emotional ever since you started smoking like this."

She closed her eyes and hid her face in her forearms. "That's not true."

He leaned close so he could say it directly into her ear, "Yes, it is, and we both know it. Give them up before you eat your own heart out."

"But I don't want to!" she whined.

"And I didn't want to risk my own life defending the lives and happiness of strangers, people who'd never met me or cared nothing for me, but I fought anyway because it was _the right thing to do."_

She didn't reply, so he continued.

"Come on, I know that you're smarter than this. It would be a pathetic biography if one of the world's most famous and influential researchers, who personally investigated anomalies in Vampire behavior that eventually led to world peace, died of lung cancer because she wanted to smoke Muggle cigarettes. Really, it would make a miserable epithet on your gravestone."

Luna groaned and her face emerged long enough to tease, "Must you be so morbid all of the time?"

"Yes!" He twirled a piece of her blonde hair around his finger and then tucked it behind her ear. "Now, what do you say?"

"I'll think about it."

"That's not good enough for me." He grinned and allowed his body to go boneless, collapsing on top of her back and crushing her. "I must have it all!"

"AH! You prig! Your fat ass is crushing me! Get off of me this instant, before I threaten your bollocks!" she bucked under him, not making any real effort to throw him off of her, more playful than anything else.

"I'd rather be infertile with both of us alive than fertile and alone in this godforsaken place."

The quiet honesty in his voice made her freeze. "Are you so fixed on wanting me to give them up that you would let me castrate you?"

He swallowed, and she smiled. "Y-yeah; it's not the ideal solution, but I can take it. I…I couldn't stand having another person I love die. I care about you too much, and with what happened with Ginny so recently, I would probably go absolutely mad and be of no use to anybody, which would be a horrible disappointment to greedy fanatic people everywhere."

"This is true. Harry, if this is as serious as you say it is, I will try to quit, starting first thing tomorrow."

He rolled off of her, and then sat bolt upright. "Hey! You are stopping _tonight, _girl!"

"Nuh-uh!" she leapt off of the bed, packet of cigarettes in hand, and made a dash for the bathroom.

"Yeah-huh!" he chased after her, skidding to a stop just in front of the locked bathroom door. She cackled on the other side, and he heard the sound of her opening the window, and then her lighter.

"Just try and stop me now, oh magnificent and all-powerful Wizard!"

He pounded on the door with his fist, laughing despite himself. "I'll get you for this, Luna! You can butter your own toast tomorrow for all I care, and I am keeping the newspaper all to myself."

She gasped in mock-horror. "You wouldn't!"

"Oh, I would. I'm going back to my book; enjoy smoking away the years of your life alone." He turned and went back to the bed, punching the pillows back into shape since their tussle had flattened them, and propped them up so that his back wouldn't be hurt by the hard wall. Opening his back, he flipped to the page where he'd left off, just at the moment when the main character realized that he was no longer in love with his childhood lover.

"I love you!" Luna suddenly yelled from inside the bathroom, her voice echoing off of the tiled walls.

He smiled and shook his head, turning a page before deciding that he might as well stop being so cruel. "I love you, too! Keep it down! We have neighbors!"

She laughed, the sound almost silvery, like a vintage heroine.

000

"Where are you going?" Charlie asked, looking up from his Saturday-morning cereal to see his daughter come into the kitchen wearing a pair of hiking boots and a thick sweatshirt.

"Oh, just on a walk with some friends; don't worry; I'll be back mid-afternoon, around three most likely, in time to make you something for dinner." She sat easily in the seat across from him, setting down her bowl and reaching for the milk.

He passed it to her, sizing her up. There was color in her cheeks, and she was wearing make-up, but the biggest change was the quiet little smile fluttering around the corners of her lips. "You look nice. Have you and Jacob stopped fighting?"

The smile faded, and she jerkily poured some cereal into her bowl, a few flakes escaping and scattering across the table from her agitation. "No, and to set the record straight, we're not fighting. Fighting would involve him talking to me, and engaging me in an argument. Right now, he is simply treating me like I don't exist."

Charlie sighed. "I'm sorry that you aren't speaking, Bells. Jacob really is a nice boy, and Billy told me just yesterday that he's just going through a hard time right now. He's sixteen- that's a hard age for a boy to be, because that's when he starts to become a man, and everything is very confusing and often tense."

"I know." Bella said softly, stirring her cereal and taking a bite. She chewed slowly, swallowed, and continued, "I just wish that he would talk to me a little bit. I agree with what you said about him- he really is a good person, and I always did want a little brother."

"Well, just keep in mind that he might have more than brotherly feelings for you." Charlie drank some coffee to avoid seeing how she took that, but he could hear her giggle.

"Yeah, I know, but he's got to learn sometime that hearts can't be forced; he's a strong guy: he can handle it. I'm going to try and call him after my walk today." She took another bite of her cereal, and they ate the rest of their respective breakfasts in silence.

When she finished, much faster than him, she stood and cleared her dish, rinsing it out. She kissed his cheek as she walked past his seat, heading for the door, so he turned slightly in his chair and called,

"Have a nice time!"

"Thanks, dad!" she waved over her shoulder, flashing him a smile devoid of falsity.

He sighed, relieved, and finished off his breakfast in peace. It wasn't until after he was settling on the couch to watch the game that he realized that she'd never told him which friends she was meeting with. He shrugged it off. It was probably just Jessica or Angela, and she hadn't felt the need to specify.

000

Excited, Bella took a moment to calm down before she knocked on the door. There were muffled sounds from inside, and someone distinctly squealed before the door was yanked open so hard that she feared it would come off of the hinges.

Standing in the doorway was Harry, missing his shirt, with Luna hanging off of his back, wearing what looked very much like his shirt. The first words out of the blonde's mouth were not directed at Bella, and were said in a voice that would put any whiny toddler to shame. "But it's so comfortable and soft! All of my shirts are too scratchy!"

"I don't give a damn. This is my favorite shirt, and I want to wear it!"

"Um…" Bella started, but wasn't heard because Luna chose to reply at the same time.

"You have two other clean shirts to choose from. Why can't you just wear one of them?"

Harry sighed, obviously starting to lose his temper. "I already told you, I want to wear this one. Now go take it off!"

Luna released his neck, her socked feet hitting the floor with a thump. From where her hands had been pulling, his neck was red and sore-looking. "Fine, but you can say good-bye to…to…"

"To nothing, because you haven't done me any favors in a while. Come on, go take off your shirt so we can get going! Shoo!" He waved her away, laughing, and stood to the side so Bella could come inside. "I am so sorry about that! We're normally not this crazy in the morning."

"No, it's okay." Bella reassured, desperately trying not to laugh because he was obviously embarrassed. "I like seeing happy people interacting like that. I'd think that you two are dating or something if I didn't know otherwise."

Harry looked at her blankly, and Bella blushed. "Oh! Not that there's anything wrong with-"

"We're not dating." Luna said, coming into the foyer wearing a sweater covered in horrible polka-dots. She threw the shirt into Harry's face with a huff before turning her attention back to Bella. "That would be quite impossible, since Harry is a pouf and all. Would you like some tea?"

Bella numbly nodded and followed her into the kitchen, wondering if she was right. Finally deciding that Luna wasn't the sort of girl to get upset over a question like this, she blurted, "Is Harry gay?"

"Yes." Luna replied slowly, drawing out the 's' sound as she put on the kettle. "That's what I said."

Bella nodded again, stupidly. "I know, I just wanted to make sure that I'd heard right."

The blonde patted her hand as she passed her by to get out a pair of mismatched mugs that were badly chipped and obviously second-hand. "I know. It's so disappointing, what with him being such a lush, even if he's a bit bookish at times."

"Oi! Are you telling lies about me?" Harry asked, coming into the kitchen wearing the shirt.

"Of course not; I only outed you. Don't you trust me?"

Harry opened his mouth, and then shut it. "I'm not going to ask who gave you permission to pander off details about my sexual life like that. I apologize yet again, Bella, for being so uncivilized, but we must cut Luna some slack today."

"Oh? Did something happen?" Bella accepted the tea that Luna poured out for her, already very happy with her decision to go out with the two Brits. They were already entertaining her.

"Yes. Luna has decided to give up smoking for me, since I asked so nicely." Harry leaned over and kissed Luna on the cheek, smiling.

"He _did _ask nicely." Luna agreed, blowing on her tea. "He offered to let me castrate him if I wanted some more incentive to give up my little heaven sticks."

Wide-eyed, Bella took a sip of tea without thinking and burned herself. "Ow!" she sucked on her tongue before going on. "You are a very brave man, Harry. I wouldn't put it past someone like Luna to actually take you up on that offer."

"Oh, if there's one thing Harry is, it's brave. He hasn't got any damn sense, but he's brave. It's quite admirable, I always thought, and our little arrangement works out especially well since I am known to have a lot of book knowledge but not a lot of street sense." Luna hugged Harry's side, smiling deviously up at him. She changed the subject a heartbeat later, "We can leave a s soon as we've finished our tea, if that's alright with you?"

"That's fine!" Bella grinned at them. If all else failed, this would be interesting.

000

End chapter 13

This was written hastily, late at night, and I apologize for missing a few updates. I've been a tad swamped.


	14. Chapter 14

A/N: because it wouldn't be fair to not warn my faithful readers, I want to let you know that my interest in this story often flags and I am having some problems with writer's block. There is a slight chance of this story getting abandoned or put on hiatus if my inspiration continues to dwindle. I am very sorry!

CHAPTER 14

The forest was the same as usual, but Bella thought that it looked brighter, less forbidding, because she wasn't walking through it alone this time. Harry and Luna asked her dozens of questions, pushing on each other to try and knock each other off balance into the mud and laughing when they succeeded.

Finally, Bella managed to squeeze in a question of her own. "So, you said that you are school-friends: what does that mean?"

Luna answered because Harry was taking a drink of water. "We've been friends for close to three years now, since we officially met when I was fourteen and he was fifteen, and since we were friends while attending the same school, that makes us 'school friends'."

"Oh." Bella nodded politely, smiling at them. "I had a friend that I'd known since I was a really little kid, though I moved away to live with my mom."

"Really? Do you still know this friend?" Harry asked, screwing the cap onto his water bottle. Luna suddenly smacked his hands and took the bottle away from him, taking off the cap and gulping down water herself. "You know, you could have just asked me." Harry groused, forgetting his question in favor of frowning disapprovingly at Luna. "You are so childish sometimes."

"My apologies, Mr. Potter." Luna gasped for air after her large swallow, a mocking smile twisting her bare lips. "I'll try to mince my words more next time."

Bella laughed, and then choked when Harry pretended to glare at her. "So, what about this childhood friend of yours?" he pushed, remembering what they'd been talking about before their episode.

"Him?"

"So it's a boy now? Did you have some kind of puppy romance together?" Luna asked slyly, smirking at her. Bella blushed and waved her hands furiously.

"It's not like that! You guys are insane! I was just saying that this friend I had when I was little is the closest thing I have to an old friend." She shuffled her feet, feeling a bit shy to have both of them looking at her so intently. "What?"

"Nothing." They answered at the same time, and then they each offered her a hand to hold.

"So tell me more about this boy. Have you seen him since you were children?" Harry inquired, swinging her hand lightly.

"Yeah, we hung out a lot this year, until a couple of months ago, when he just cut me off for no reason. I still don't know if I offended him somehow or if he just hates me now." She shrugged disconsolately. "I wish I could just talk to him so I can apologize and yell at him for being such a…"

"Dick?" Luna supplied helpfully.

Bella choked. "Uh-"

"Please forgive Luna's potty mouth. She can't help it: she was born in a gutter." Harry teased, reaching around Bella to pinch Luna's cheek.

"You pinch too hard!" Luna complained, rubbing her cheek with a pout. "Sorry, Bella; what's his name?"

"Jacob Black." Harry stiffened slightly beside her before relaxing again. "What? Do you guys know him?"

"Yeah, we ran into him at the McDonald's a while back. He's a tall guy, with black hair and tan skin, right?" Luna supplied, looking a little grim herself. "I'm sorry that he's been so mean to you; he seemed like a really nice guy when we met him."

Bella sighed. "That's the thing: Jacob _is _really nice, and he really helped me when I was depressed. I know that he's not the kind of person to just stay mad like this unless it's something really serious, which is why I am freaking out."

"I see." Harry said softly, looking everywhere but at her. "Well, we'll track him down for you and interrogate him."

"You don't need to do that!" Bella protested, sure that these two were just the kind of people to kidnap teenagers and interrogate them about why they were avoiding their friends. "It's not that big of a deal, really. I'm okay, and I'm trusting that if he wants to be friends again, he'll start talking to me. Besides, I have you guys now to distract me and keep me company!"

Luna hugged her side. "That's the spirit! You don't need him!"

"Luna, if you had your way, there would be no need for men period. I think that you're really anti-masculine." Harry joked. "It's quite offensive."

"Oh, you just shut up!"

000

They stopped for lunch at noon, settling into a vaguely circular glade alive with the sounds of rain pattering and muffled animal sounds. The long grass moved like a sea, reflecting the gray light pouring from behind the clouds back as silver.

Bella stared at it, hypnotized, as she slowly ate her sandwich. They were quiet as well, Luna's knitting needles making soft clicking noises as she purled her stitches. She wasn't sure where Harry had gone off to, but she assumed that he was relieving himself.

"What are you thinking about?" Luna asked quietly, not looking up from her blue yarn creation.

Bella started. "Nothing, just how beautiful it is out here in the woods. I'm beginning to wish that I'd gone on more walks alone so I could enjoy this peacefulness when I first moved here, instead of focusing all of my time and attention on…" she trailed off.

"You focused on what, love?" Luna adjusted her ball of yarn and crossed her ankles. Her eyes flicked up, dancing over Bella's tense shoulders and the frown lines on her forehead before going back to her knitting. She swore under her breath when she saw that she'd somehow managed to mess up several stitches in the space of her once-over.

"On _him." _

"Who?" Her tone was light, but her eyes were hard where they watched her stitches closely to ensure that she wouldn't mess up again.

"Edward Cullen." Bella breathed a sigh when she said the name out loud, feeling like a dark tree that'd been festering like a wound in her heart shrivel up, taking it's oppressive shadow with it. She might as well have lost 50 pounds of emotional agony.

"Cullen, you say?"

"Yeah." Bella heaved another sigh, feeling like she'd been doing nothing but sigh today. "Why? Don't tell me that you've met him too! It's weird enough that you guys met Jacob, but meeting my ex-boyfriend as well is too much for me."

Luna giggled. "No such thing; besides, he is in Alaska, after all, so the odds of us running into him here are pretty low."

Her brown eyes went wide and her breath caught. There was no way…!

"W-what did you say?" She whispered, afraid to hear the answer.

"I said that it would be impossible for us to run into Edward Cullen here since he is in Alaska with the rest of his family right now. What, didn't he tell you where he was going? What an absolute prick! Even if he was breaking up with you or vice-versa, he should have had the common decency to tell you where he was going. Why are all the men in your life complete assholes, with the small exception of your father?" Luna demanded, angrily shaking her head. Her braids swung back and forth with the motion and one of the whipped her in the face, making her hiss softly with pain.

Bella couldn't answer, too much in shock to remember how to function her voice box. Did Luna know that the Cullens were Vampires? How could Luna possibly know, and if she knew, did this mean that Harry was also in on the secret? She wondered if they'd been sent by the Cullens to watch over her, but discarded the idea. Their lack of so much as a good-bye had made it perfectly clear how they felt about her, and she wasn't going to cling to the memories of people that didn't even like her enough to be polite about abandoning her.

Luna misunderstood her silence and immediately started crooning at her, running her fingertips down her arm with one hand while stuffing her knitting project into her backpack. She slid down the log until she was close enough to hold her.

"I'm sorry, Bella. I know that I can be a little bit harsh sometimes…I'm sure that both of those boys have perfectly good reasons for why they are doing what they are doing, or at least they had better hope that they have good reasons before I get my hands on them." She rubbed her back, and Bella numbly wrapped her arms around the blonde's neck, hazily noticing that Luna's hair smelled really, really good.

"You smell like flowers." She mumbled, feeling like a little kid all over again, the day her mother had first worn perfume she'd liked around her.

Luna tilted her head like a bird, pulling back so she could look into her eyes. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"It's a good thing, absolutely. What kind of perfume are you wearing?" Bella decided that she was just going to pretend that Luna didn't know about the Cullens for a couple of moments, long enough for the part of her psyche that was screaming in shock to calm down.

"I don't wear perfume; it makes my nose itch. I just use this nice shampoo that my friend Neville makes by hand for me every Christmas. He always makess me five big bottles, and then some soap, but I don't mind because I love the way it smells and feels." Luna held out one of her four braids. "Here, feel how soft my hair is."

Bella stroked her braid, feeling a little thrill go through her. Where had that come from? Luna's misty eyes were smiling and warm despite the shadows of worry drifting in the corners of her mouth, and Bella found herself shifting slowly closer almost against her will, her own eyes fluttering.

"It's very soft." She replied at last, her voice barely audible and mere inches from Luna's face. Luna hadn't reacted negatively or tried to pull away, so she cautiously advanced another inch, not wanting to even think about what she was doing.

Luna smiled a little bit, her lips pulling up at the corners. She still didn't move away, and even shifted one of her hands so that her finger could stroke the top of Bella's hand.

"Don't be shy." She murmured unexpectedly, tilting her head just the barest inch to one side and brushing their noses together.

Bella's head was swimming and she was fairly sure that her mother would approve of what she was about to do far less than she would have disapproved of Edward-the-Vampire, but her mother wasn't here and Bella was an adult. As an adult, she should be able to make her own decisions about things like this.

The blonde's eyes closed halfway and she moved her head up and down a tiny bit, rubbing the tips of their noses together. Bella sucked in a breath and closed the last remaining separation between them, pressing her lips against hers.

Edward's lips had been hard and cold like the rest of him, despite their intoxicating feel, but Luna was soft and warm and she tasted like the honey and butter sandwich she'd had for lunch.

Luna's finger left and suddenly her whole warm, dry hand covered hers and squeezed it gently, her other hand moving up to lightly stroke her neck. She made a little noise in her throat when Bella shyly touched her waist, and it didn't sound like a 'no', so Bella dared to rub her side gently through the thick cabled wool of her sweater.

When they broke apart, Bella had no idea how long they'd been kissing, or even how Luna was reacting to this because she immediately buried her nose in her neck, nuzzling a little bit. Her nose was cold and tickled her collarbone a little bit, but pleasantly so.

At last, she knew that she couldn't just let this pass as some kind of forest-induced episode and spoke up, "Luna…?"

"Hm?" she pressed a light kiss to her neck, and Bella jumped a little bit, her fingers clenching in Luna's sweater. Luna laughed low in her throat. "Sorry for startling you."

"It's okay. Um, Luna, what do we do about this?"

"What do you mean?" Luna pulled back, and stroked a piece of Bella's hair behind her ear. It was such a nice gesture, and done so easily, that Bella felt her heart swell a little bit with new life.

"I mean, what are we now? Was this just experimentation or do you want to be my…you know…" she couldn't bring herself to say the word 'girlfriend' and looked down at where her lap would have been if it wasn't obscured by the folds of Luna's skirt and the edge of her sweater.

"That depends." Luna gracefully moved one mobile shoulder up in a shrug. "Do you want to be my girlfriend, just to try it out? We don't have to tell anyone unless you want to, and I promise that I won't mind if you look at other girls or boys, since we'd just be trying it out."

"I'd like that." Bella looked up, and boldly pecked the corner of Luna's mouth. She could still taste the honey, even from that brief touch. "This is going to sound so corny, but I've wanted to say this ever since I first saw you in that diner with Harry and my dad."

"What did you want to say?" Luna asked, kissing her cheek chastely.

"You look like an angel to me."

000

Meanwhile, Harry was indeed relieving himself, and then he decided to walk around a little bit since he knew that Luna wouldn't worry about him and it would give the girls a chance to talk about things like underwear and their hormones.

He stumbled upon a perfectly circular meadow, and looked around in awe. Stepping onto the soft grass, he walked to what he judged to be roughly the center of it, and stopped.

All around him were trees of fairly uniform sizes, and there were a few bushes that no doubt bloomed flowers in the summer interspersed between them. This must be quite the beautiful spot when the sun was shining, even though it was stunning while it rained.

Suddenly, he knew that he was no longer alone. Measured footsteps sounded behind him, maybe ten feet away at the most. He didn't turn around, some kind of unknown fear rising up in his chest like smog.

"Hello there, stranger." A man's voice said, not one that he recognized.

A Vampire circled around him to stand several feet in front of him, his arms loose and relaxed at his sides, non-threatening, with a friendly smile on his face. Harry wasn't fooled, though.

The Vampire's eyes were red.

000

End chapter 14

The Bella/Luna is not random crack, I swear!


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Thanks to Ryuuga Setsuko for the very thoughtful (but unsigned) review!

CHAPTER 15

"It's nice to meet you." Harry replied, hiding the twinges of fear he felt. He was the Boy-Who-Lived, and if he had been able to kill Voldemort and come out of it alive, then he could surely handle one blood-sucking Vampire. "I don't mean to be rude, since we haven't even been properly introduced yet, but I strongly suggest that you exit my presence before I make you regret interfering with me."

"Oh, is that a threat, boy?" He raised his chin, smiling with a mocking gleam in his hellish eyes. "How foolish of you; didn't anyone ever tell you that antagonizing strangers was a bad idea?"

"Of course I've been told that, which says some very interesting things about _you, _judging by your actions_." _Harry retorted, subtly widening his stance and tensing the muscles in his right forearm. A mere twitch would drop his wand into his hand.

The Vampire hissed, baring his fangs. "You've got quite the mouth on you, boy. I don't like to eat with strangers, and I am tired of calling you 'boy', so what is your name?"

"Harry." He snapped out. "And I'm assuming that your name is 'asshole'."

"Why you-" He lunged for him, teeth bared and eyes flashing like a rabid dog's.

Expecting this, Harry feinted to one side, spinning around the Vampire while dropping his wand into his palm. "_Seperatus!"_

His assailant choked, raising his hands to his throat, where scores of razor-thin lines of black were appearing with startling swiftness. "What…what did you do to me…?" His voice was nothing more than a thin whisper, choked off by a whimper. Those red eyes that had seemed so frightening a mere moment ago rolled back in their sockets, and his head cleanly dropped off of his body, which was still twitching.

Not one to waste time, he flicked his wand again, silently this time, and the Vampire's body burst into slow-burning flames. Harry hummed softly in approval of his handiwork, and replaced his wand in his sleeve. "It's alright, you can come out now." He called. "I promise not to bite."

Jasper dropped from the branches of a tree, his eyes impossibly wide and fixed on his sleeve where his wand was stowed. At last he recovered himself long enough to ask, "What was that?"

Harry shrugged. "Magic. He was bothering me with the intention to have me for a snack and I acted in self-defense- if you decide to bring me before a legal justice, they won't do anything because of the threat he posed to my livelihood."

"Ah."

"Yep. But hey, aside from the whole 'you witnessing me murder someone' part, it's lovely to see you again!" He smiled, inwardly shushing the memories of what Luna had said about his sexuality and his apparently obvious crush on the Vampire. Honestly! They barely knew each other, so it was mainly comprised of a favorable first impression and Jasper's great physical beauty.

The blonde laughed, easing the tension slightly. "It's nice to see you too, Harry. I was just headed for the bed and breakfast, but I guess that fate intervened and made our paths cross sooner rather than later. If I'd come here sooner, I would have helped defend you from Laurent."

Harry blinked slowly. "Who's Laurent?"

Jasper simply pointed to the severed head and its corpse staining the purity of the meadow, now badly charred and quickly losing all signs of being human-shaped. "That guy."

"Did you guys know each other or something?" Harry scratched his cheek with his fingernail, looking down at the deceased Vampire with a frown.

"Yes, but we were not friends and my family shall not miss him now that he is dead; by attacking you, he broke the trust that my coven and his own. He was supposed to stick to the same diet as my coven, but his eyes are red, so I can only conclude that he was cheating behind our backs." Jasper face was grim and hard as he stared down at the corpse. "Did he manage to hurt you? I only saw you point that stick at him."

"No, but it was close." Harry boldly reached out and squeezed his arm. "And I really appreciate knowing that you'll help me out if this happens again, which it probably will, judging by my track record."

"What do you mean?" Jasper met his eyes and jerked his head towards the edge of the clearing, indicating that they should leave the corpse in peace.

"Well, not to sound like I'm complaining or anything, since I really am very grateful for all of the life experiences that I have had, but my life has been excessively interesting for as long as I can remember." He chuckled. "It's like trouble always finds me, no matter how far I run or how expertly I hide."

"I see." Jasper replied, looking at him from under his lashes before quickly looking away when he caught Harry looking back at him. He cleared his throat unnecessarily. "So, where is Luna? I can smell her fresh scent on you, so don't try and say that she isn't with you."

Harry grinned. "Gee, remind me to never try and have an affair while involved with a Vampire: they'd know right away!"

Jasper laughed too, biting his lip a moment later. "You still didn't answer my question."

"Oh! Right, right…she's maybe a five minute walk away from where we are right now, in this nice, shady little glade where we had a lovely lunch with a friend of ours. I left them alone for a little while to give them some privacy to talk about whatever it is girls is always whispering about when the lads are present." He smiled carefully at the blonde. "You're welcome to join us, or we can just walk like this for a little while longer."

He could barely believe what Harry's emotions were telling him! Harry desperately wanted to be alone with him, but felt guilty about it for some reason. Underlying the desire for their companionship was a hint of a very different sort of desire that would have made him blush if he still had blood to blush with. It was quite the relief to know that he wasn't the only one wanting this to be more than just a walk in the woods.

"To be honest, I would prefer to enjoy the forest with just you for a little while longer, if you're sure that it isn't troublesome." His answer made Harry beam at him as brightly as the sun, and they switched directions so that they were now heading deeper into the woods instead of closer to Harry's lunching spot. Jasper worked up his nerve and then carefully shifted his walk into a very subtle diagonal that eventually bumped their shoulders together, as if by accident. "Sorry." They both murmured, and Harry shot him a shy smile.

"How is your family?" he asked at length, swinging his arms and letting his hand brush against the Vampire's 'by accident' a few times. "Are they still in Alaska?"

"Yes, but they won't be for long."

"Oh? Why is that?" Harry asked, plucking a leaf off of a low-hanging branch and raising it to his nose so he could smell the waxy, fresh scent of it.

"I told them about meeting you and Luna, your research, and they expressed interest in assisting you. It's been a very long time since any of us have had the opportunity to simply socialize with a pair of fearless intellectuals such as you two. That's why I was looking for you, so I could ask you if it won't be too much an imposition for us to join you for dinner, or perhaps afterwards tonight or tomorrow?" Against his will, some of the infectious excitement of his family slipped into his question, and he could tell that Harry noticed.

"I will have to ask Luna, of course, since we share a house and we prefer to make our decisions together, but I wouldn't worry if I were you; she loves to socialize as much as I do, and there would have to be something really important going on that I don't know about for her to say no." He reached over and slipped the leaf, a perfectly shaped green offering, into Jasper's hair. "How many of you would be attending, in the likely event of our evening rendezvous?"

"It would be all of us with the exception of my brother Edward, who had some personal issues in this area and finds it too painful to attend, which makes seven total." He uneasily rolled his shoulders when Harry didn't answer, merely staring thoughtfully around at the scenery they were passing through. He already missed the sound of Harry's voice, but he could make do with his mere presence.

"What's she like?" Harry asked a few minutes later, his eyes not leaving the damp jungle around them.

"Who?" He had a fair idea of who Harry meant, but a little stalling never hurt anybody and it was always good to confirm information before you gave your own.

"The woman you were married to, your ex-wife."

"Firstly, her name is Alice, and she's quite short. She has a heart as big as the world, and made of gold as well; she had to, to live with me for so many years as the loving partner she was, and for continuing to support me." He nervously clasped his hands together before confessing, "I, ah, I told her about you, and she really wants to meet you."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "What'd you tell her about me?"

There was no use being a spineless coward about this, so Jasper bravely replied, "I told her that you're the most thrilling person I have ever met, outside of her, and that I dearly wish that I had met you earlier than now. I… I told her how I feel about you and about the hope I have about the contents of your heart being the same as mine."

The brunette actually stopped walking, and when Jasper opened his mouth to ask him if he was feeling alright, Harry spoke before he could. There was a flush of tentative hope surrounding him like a halo, and Jasper almost reached out to trace the bloom of it before remembering himself and keeping his hands to his sides. "And how do you feel about me, Jasper?"

He asked it so softly and so sweetly that Jasper couldn't answer for a few long moments, freely inhaling the euphoric sensation of being present and even causing such breathtaking emotions. He gathered his thoughts when unease entered the rainbow shades of his feelings, though, and answered, "We've met only once before, but I find myself wanting to know you like we're old friends. I want to know what makes you happy and what makes you sad, and I want to be by your side when I am far away. I couldn't stop thinking about how fascinating you are, and every minute I was in Alaska, I only wanted to be back here, in these woods, with you. You don't have to say yes or even answer this request, but I would like to…"

Could he really say it now, so soon?

"You'd like to what?" Harry asked with his breathing uneven and his voice breathy because of it.

Jasper squared his shoulders. He would never be able to live with himself if he didn't at least ask. "I would like to court you, if that is alright with you."

Instead of slapping him or fainting or something equally awful, Harry simply stared at him.

"Like I said, you don't have to say yes." Jasper repeated, feeling more high-strung with each second that passed without Harry saying anything. "If you are uncomfortable around me now, simply nod and I will leave you alone from here on out, and won't subject you to my presence any longer."

"No…" Harry breathed.

He might as well have been punched in the stomach. Rejection is always a risk when offering one's heart, but it shouldn't hurt so much! He blinked multiple times, wanting to cry in a most embarrassing way.

"Don't go." Harry continued, groping from his sleeve. He caught his wrist instead, and fastened his fingers, warm and pulsing minutely with blood, tightly around it, obviously not intending to let him go anytime soon. "I would love to be courted by you."

"B-but you said no!" Jasper stuttered. "Please don't lead me on like this: which is it, yes or no? Please tell me quickly!"

"Yes! Yes. I meant that 'no' as a rejection of your idiotic plan to leave me, and I'm sorry for confusing you." Harry's cheeks were preciously pink, and he shuffled his feet before looking up at him, showing that streak of fire that ran through his personality like a bolt of lightning. "If you still don't believe me, then kiss me and see if I object."

If his mother hadn't raised him to always treat ladies with respect, which he was applying to boyfriends now, he would have devoured Harry's mouth whole until he ran out of air, so as to not leave a single doubt in his gorgeous head about how he felt. Being a gentleman, however, he advanced slowly until the toes of their shoes touched, looking down at him warmly and reassuringly. It would never do for his new beau to be nervous, after all.

Cupping his face, he took a moment to lightly press his palms into the soft skin with just a trace of boyish stubble along the jaw line. He bent his head slowly, dropping his eyelids halfway when he saw Harry do so.

Kissing him was like deliberately sticking your hand over the flame of a stove burner: just shy of painful, and treading the dangerous line over which lay injury, in this case to Harry. He wasn't used to lips being warm, and he discovered that he'd really missed the sensation.

Harry sighed, lightly gripping the front of his shirt, one palm flat to help him keep his footing when Jasper lifted him up a few inches to get a better angle, leaving him balanced on his toes.

He didn't want to, but he disconnected their mouths when Harry's breathing became a little more labored. "Sorry." He murmured, sliding one hand into beau's black hair and twisting the strands between his fingers. "I got a little carried away."

Harry laughed huskily, still breathless, and kissed his chin. "I don't mind, and if I do, I'll jinx you."

Jasper nuzzled his cheek, and then stepped back a little bit to give him some space. Harry followed though, obviously having none of that. "Hey now, don't tell me that _now _you're going to go all shy on me."

"Nothing of the sort!" Jasper replied indignantly, a trace of his old drawl slipping into his voice. "I just didn't want to move too fast, that's all."

"Thank you, love, that's very considerate of you and I expect you to let me know if I push you too hard or fast as well." Harry insisted, despite Jasper's attempts to protest. He covered his mouth with his hand. "Now how about I give you my new address so you know where to come tonight if Luna says yes, and then we can go join the girls."

Jasper kissed his hand, relishing in the ability to do so.

000

End chapter 15

I don't know any of the Harry Potter incantations outside of the Unforgivables, so I just made some up; sorry. As for the black blood, even though Meyer is too much of a bitch to let Vampires be Vampires (exposing the poor things to stuff like sunlight and the ability to eat garlic…), I am not. Vampires bleed black sometimes, for those of you without knowledge of the undead.


	16. Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

When they entered the glade, Harry already opening his mouth to greet them, Jasper's back went stiff as a board. He noticed the Vampire's reaction and frowned, closing his mouth.

The girls weren't where he left them sitting on the log, instead lounging under one of the trees where the ground was still mostly dry. Luna had her head in Bella's lap and was talking to her in a low voice, a carefree smile on her face that Harry had only seen once or twice before.

Jasper was slowly walking backwards, trying to sneak out of the glade before he was noticed, and Harry grabbed his wrist before he could. He mouthed silently, 'don't be shy', misunderstanding his escape attempt.

The blonde shook his head at him and tugged gently on the arm that Harry was restraining him with.

"What's wrong?" Harry finally whispered, almost soundlessly.

"I know the other girl." Jasper replied, his tone implying that there was much more than a mere casual acquaintance or even distant friendship between them. Unbidden and unwanted, jealousy wrapped itself around his heart. Jasper's eyes darkened, flicking over him, and he stopped pulling away. "It wasn't like that."

Before they could continue their stressful conversation, Luna happened to tilt her head and catch sight of them. "Oh, hey guys! Jasper, you're back!"

Bella's neck snapped up, and she gasped when she saw Jasper. Jasper himself swore quietly and once again tried to leave, but Harry wouldn't let him.

"It's been a long time, Jasper." Bella stated in a voice clipped and emotionless. Luna sat up, wriggling over so she could sit beside the brunette against the tree. She put her arm around her and squeezed lightly.

"So, how do you two know each other?" Harry asked, feigning a casual attitude.

"His brother broke my heart and then his whole family abandoned me without as much as a good-bye. I have to admit that I am still a little bit upset about that, since I was very much in love with Edward and considered his sister to be my best friend." She accepted Luna's arm around her and visibly relaxed when the blonde crooned at her in sympathy. "However, Jasper, when you next see your family, if Edward asks, which I doubt, about how I have been getting on, answer that I am happily in a new relationship and am willing to be friends if he apologizes."

"You're seeing someone?" Harry asked when Jasper didn't say anything in response to her unexpected speech.

"Yeah, I am dating Luna." Bella kissed the top of Luna's head shyly, sharing a private smile with her.

"Neither of us are very experienced at being in a relationship, so we're going to take this one step at a time, but I hope that neither of you will have any objections to us being together." Luna added, meeting both of their eyes in turn. "And I wasn't hiding this from you Harry; I had feelings for Bella, but did not act on them until this past hour."

Jasper was still mute, gazing silently from one human to the next, his eyes always lingering longer on Harry than either of the girls. Finally, he spoke up, addressing Bella exclusively. "I am happy for you and your new girlfriend, Bella, and I want to apologize for my family's actions. Edward discussed his decision to end his romantic attachment to you with all of us, and convinced us that it would be easiest on you if all traces of my family disappeared seamlessly from your life."

Bella processed this and nodded. "I can understand the thinking behind that, but it was not effective. For months on end I closed in on myself, deeply depressed." She sighed. "But it would be immature of me to continue thinking about the months of my life that I wasted mourning him and drowning in my own self-pity."

"I am so sorry, Bella; I know that, had I not lost control, Edward would not have seen fit to end your relationship out of concern for your safety-"

Bella cut him off before he could apologize any more. "Its okay, Jasper; I never blamed you for what happened, because I know that it was ultimately no one's fault. You should be proud that you did not actually end up compromising my life." She smiled at him, and held out her hand. He reached down and shook it.

"Thank you."

"No problem. So…what brought you back to Forks?" He sat down on the log across from them, and Harry sat next to him. "No wait, don't tell me. It was Harry, wasn't it?"

Jasper spluttered, and Harry's face slowly flushed, spreading down his neck and into the collar of his sweater. It was one of Mrs. Weasley's annual Christmas gifts, and he looked quite nice in it.

"I'm going to take that as a 'yes', but can you tell me in actual words how you guys know each other?" Bella teased, grinning at them.

"I had a fight with Rosalie a while back about my relationship with Alice and decided to come here to blow off some steam. I ran into these two suspicious characters and they told me that they were here to research Vampires with my family's particular diet, so I obliged them with a chat."

"During which Harry shamelessly seduced him, thus luring him back here with the promise of his honeyed love-" Luna piped up before Bella slapped her hand over her mouth.

"Oh my god, you are shameless!"

Luna laughed. "I know, but Harry isn't and I love watching him get all flustered. It's half the fun of knowing him, and I think Jasper likes seeing him blush."

"I am not blushing!" Harry protested, turning even redder. Beside him, Jasper looked amused and brushed their feet together with a smile.

"Yes you are. But, Jasper, you said something about Alice; are you two okay?" Bella brought the focus back off of Harry and his unfortunate state, picking up a strand of Luna's hair and playing with it. The blonde reached into her backpack and pulled out a knitting project of some kind and started to work at it, content to let the others talk for now.

Jasper shrugged. "We got divorced."

"What?!"

000

"I don't understand it either, boss." Jerry finally broke the silence, slightly afraid for the Chief's composure. The elusive records had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, as if they'd never been missing in the first place. The only sign of their previous non-existence was a small note at the top of each that informed them of a computer problem that had temporarily erased them.

"I was so sure that there was something off about those kids, but they're both clean! Neither of them even got so much as suspended from their schools." Charlie grumbled, sitting back in his chair with a sigh of frustration.

"Speaking of schools, I wonder what person thought it would be a good idea to name a school for boy's 'St. Brutus'?" Jerry sniggered at his own joke before the Chief glared at him.

"Must you be so juvenile, Jerry? You're dismissed for now; I need to concentrate on the _normal _responsibilities of the day."

Jerry nodded and left the office before the Chief could assign him extra work out of ill temper. Sometimes Chief Swan could be outright hormonal when things didn't go the way he was expecting.

000

"I said that we got divorced, Bella." Jasper lifted his chin slightly in silent challenge should she decide to debate their choice. "It was a mutual decision, since neither of us was in love with each other. We are still very close, but now I suppose that you could call us best friends instead of spouses."

"B-But…I'm sorry, but this is just so unexpected." Bella let out her breath in a rush.

"What, you thought that I would commit adultery behind her back with Harry here?" A tinge of carefully-hidden outrage clouded his words.

"No! I just always thought of you two as the kind of couple that was open to sharing." Bella seemed very embarrassed by this admission and immediately continued on. "But if you two are happier like this, than you have my blessing. Since you're involved with Harry now, will you be coming to Forks to see him frequently?"

Jasper nodded. "Of course, if he'll let me."

"Oh, I will definitely let you." Harry laughed. "That is, if Luna doesn't mind."

Luna glanced up from her knitting to smile at them. "You're welcome in our house anytime, Jasper. Just don't mind the awful mess we make sometimes or debauch Harry in front of me when I'm trying to eat."

Harry coughed. "We'll, uh, keep that in mind. Does this mean that you are okay with Jasper and everyone else in his coven coming over for dinner tonight?"

She thought this one over. "Since I don't have to buy extra food, I am fine with that plan. We eat anytime between 5 and 11, though, so just show up when you like."

Bella perked up. "Everyone is coming here? Will Alice be able, and willing, to come say hello to me afterwards? I really miss her."

"I'll have to ask her, but I'm sure that she would love to see you, Bella. She really misses you too." Jasper responded, nearly stumbling over his words when Harry stroked his knee.

"Thanks Jasper!" Bella beamed.

000

Adjusting his collar, Jasper sat in the passenger seat of Alice's car as she sped down the highway. She sang along to the radio, and he could feel Rosalie's hidden pleasure at the sound of her voice pulsing gently from the backseat.

"You seem to be in a good mood." He stated, meeting her eyes in the rear view mirror. She smirked at him.

"I am. Now that I don't want to tear your testicles off anymore for not telling me about your man fantasies, I find myself miraculously cheerful."

He rolled his eyes. "For your information, I didn't _have _any so-called 'man fantasies' before I met Harry. Alice and I ended our marriage because it was what we decided was best."

"That's right!" Alice piped. "And didn't you always say that you wished one of our brothers was gay so that you could take him with you shopping without the risk of them whining the whole time?"

"I was kidding!" Rosalie tried to protest, but she could already tell that she wasn't going to win this one. "Hey, Emmett, why aren't you defending my honor?"

He didn't look up from his portable video game. "Because I'm too busy defending my own honor, babe. Just wait until later- it's been a while since Jasper and I had a real match off and we can use this as an excuse to beat each other up."

Jasper snorted. "Please, since when has a week been considered a long time? We had a fight last Sunday, don't you remember?"

"Nobody cares!" Rosalie snapped, opening her purse and digging through it for her lipstick and mirror.

Alice snickered in the front seat and changed the music channel. The rest of the ride was relatively quiet, with only the occasional frustrated grunt from Emmett as he struggled to win his video game.

They pulled into the driveway of Harry and Luna's house half an hour later and Alice laughed when she saw that it was only two houses from Bella's. "Was that planned? You said that they know each other now."

"Who the fuck plans to live within breathing distance of the chief officer in local law enforcement?" Emmett demanded incredulously, peering around his wife's shoulder to eye the distance. "Whatever. Let's just go inside before I eat my own hand out of anticipation."

"I second that!" Alice chirped, hopping out of the car. She circled the car and took her ex-husband's offered arm. Behind their car, Carlisle and Esme pulled up.

"Wait for us!" Esme called out the window.

Reluctantly, Emmett stepped away from the doorbell he was about the press. One of the humans must have been watching them from a window, though, since the door opened a couple of seconds later.

Luna stood there, illuminated in the golden light from their lamps, wearing a shirt too big for her that served as a dress and one sock.

"Welcome to my humble abode! Forgive your host, but he had to use the lavatory just now and will be a moment or two."

Carlisle and his wife slipped around their children and he offered his hand. "You must be Luna!"

"Absolutely; you're Jasper's father figure, right?"

"Yes, I am Carlisle and this is my wife Esme."

Luna nodded at them, and then stepped to the side. "Well, don't stand out here for god's sakes! Come inside."

000

End chapter 16


	17. Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17

"Harry! They're here!" She called out once they'd entered the house, and she flapped her wrist at them, indicating that they should seat themselves wherever they could before she disappeared through a back door, still calling her friend's name. There were two couches in the front room, both of which smelled faintly of mould and cats.

They seated themselves, leaving space for the pair of humans, which meant that Emmett ended up standing behind his wife's seat. He played with her hair as much as he dared while they waited for Luna to come out of the back room she'd disappeared into.

When she reappeared a moment later, before any of the Cullens could start up a conversation amongst themselves, Harry was following her, wearing considerably more clothing than the blonde.

"Welcome! I'm sorry for the wait, but how about we not waste anymore time and just get down to business?" he winked at Jasper, crossing the room to the blank spot left open on one end of the couch. He kissed his cheek as Luna sat next to him, and her jostling the couch cushions made his balance slide a little so that he ended up kissing the Vampire's ear as well. He recovered nicely, though Jasper was gripping the couch cushion beside him, and breezily asked, "Who would like to introduce themselves first?"

"And we already know who Jasper is, by the way." Luna added for seemingly no reason, her face unnaturally serious. Harry stifled a laugh and tried to compose himself as the various Vampires introduced themselves by name.

"It's very nice to meet all of you in person, and Luna and I can't express how grateful we are at your willingness to cooperate with us. This is far more than we'd ever hoped to get out of this project, although I have to admit that I was expecting next to nothing, so I can't speak in equal measure on that topic." He shrugged. "Luna, why don't you ask a question, and then they can ask us a question? Does that sound acceptable to everyone?"

There were nods all around, so Luna pulled a notepad out from under the sofa and clicked a pen into working order. Harry blinked, not understanding how she had known just where to stash her supplies.

"Carlisle, what made you decide to abstain from human blood?"

"I felt compassion for humanity, and could no longer live with such a monstrous way of sustaining myself."

She nodded and wrote it down. "Do you or any member of your family have a question for either of us?"

"I do." The blonde named Rosalie spoke up, tilting her head slightly as her husband rubbed her shoulders. "How do you kids know about us? Jasper spouted some bullshit about you guys being some kind of paranormal experts or ESP users or something."

"Well, you should feel fortunate that you are no longer a human, or else Harry and I wouldn't be able to tell you what we are without violating what our people refer to as the Statute of Secrecy." Luna's voice had a slight hard edge to it, and Harry knew that the two girls were probably having some kind of silent power match.

Rosalie raised a sculpted and well-groomed eyebrow. "Well? That was technically a non-answer just then."

Luna chortled. "To be blunt, we're witches."

None of them seemed shocked, although Emmett did groan quietly.

Esme, at last, politely asked, "You mean that you follow a cult of Wicca, that is?"

"Of course not!" Luna actually sounded offended. "Neither of us are in any way connected to those spineless idiotic organizations that spend their time nattering on about energy and divination without having any true understanding of it! I would rather _die!_" she was breathing hard at the end of her exclamation, chest heaving.

It was really too bad that Bella wasn't there to appreciate the sight of it.

"But you said that you guys were witches!" Emmett protested. "Do you have a special name for your cult? And since when do cults know about Vampires for real?"

"I believe that the arrangement was that one of us would ask a question, and then you would ask a question in return. You will have to answer several more questions of ours if you wish for us to answer your interrogations in such swift succession!" Luna snapped. Harry gently covered her quivering forearm with his own, stroking it with his fingertips.

"Now, now, Luna, there's no need to lash out at them." He flicked his eyes around significantly. "Can we really expect them to believe us, just like that? This really is the better reaction."

Luna sighed, deflating. "I see your point. I apologize, everyone. I recently quit smoking and my temper isn't what it ought to be."

Murmurs of understanding passed around the room, Esme nodding and smiling at her. "It's alright; I apologize for offending you with my question."

She smiled back. "Oh, pish-posh; I overreacted. Anyways, moving back to our actual directive, if you decided not to drink human blood, then why did you turn your family?"

Carlisle smiled down at his wife before replying. "The reasons vary from child to child, and of course my wife, but I did not bite any that had a chance for a happy life as a human being, and all of them were dying when I performed the change, so I prevented cutting years out of their mortal lifetimes."

Luna scribbled his answer down before raising her head and turning to Emmett. "Now you can ask your question, young man."

Harry snickered again, and stole Luna's pen briefly to start drawing a design with it on the back of his hand.

"Okay, uh, what kinds of cult or witchcraft organization are you involved with that somehow gave you the ability to track us down in the first place?" He obviously phrased his question especially to get as much information out of them that he could. Harry reconsidered his opinion of him.

"Harry, why don't you answer this one?" Luna asked, snatching her pen back only to start drawing mimicry of his design onto her own hand.

"Sure. When Luna said that we were witches, she meant it. We're not pagans or mystics or whatever people are calling themselves these days; we were both born with the genetic ability to practice magic, and do so. Since your kinds are considered magical creatures, we know about you, just like we know about faeries, werewolves and centaurs."

Emmett laughed loudly before suddenly stopping when he saw that they were serious, or as serious as they could be while silently squabbling over a simple plastic pen. Luna maliciously smudged Harry's doodle, and he hissed at her.

"Did you have another question?" Carlisle ventured cautiously, catching their attention.

"How does your different outlook change the way you connect with others of your kind?"

"Many are not happy about it, but since our coven is large, we have remained relatively safe from vicious attacks against us." Carlisle spread his hands magnanimously. "We do not antagonize them and they usually don't do so to us. There is another group like us, even larger, in Alaska, which is where we have been based for the majority of the past year."

Luna nodded. "So Jasper was kind enough to tell us."

Alice finally joined in the conversation, leaning gracefully around her ex-husband to make eye contact. "Can you show us some of your magic, just so we can see what it's like?"

"Sure!" Luna chirped back, reaching down the front of her shirt and removing her wand. Emmett's eyes were a little wide at that point, but he eyed her wand with interest and slight disbelief like everyone else in the coven. "Expecto Patronum!"

A silvery hare, perfectly solid, sprang from her wand and circled the room a few times before scampering across Harry's lap to nestle close to Luna's breast. She stroked its fur and crooned at it before allowing it to dissipate.

"Wow, Luna that is the most powerful Patronus I have ever seen you make!" Harry admired. "What memory were you using?"

She blushed and smiled at him. "One I made just this afternoon."

He grinned. "Oh, I see. Clever girl."

"Right back at you." She retorted before turning back to Emmett. "Did that look like filthy cult mumbo-jumbo to you, big guy?"

He numbly shook his head. "What does that do? Like, it was cute and all, but what do you do with rabbit?"

"I'll tell you after one of you tells me what the Volturi have to say about your coven." Luna winked at him, crossing her legs and scanning them with her eyes. "What, don't tell me that no officer of theirs has approached you and given you a bullshit speech about them being the bosses of the undead?"

Carlisle blinked slowly several times in succession before gently shaking his head. "Wonders shall never cease; I had thought that no humans other than their own pawns were aware of their existence."

Luna snorted. "_Please; _give us lowly humans a little more credit than that. They were very obvious about it, no matter how subtle they believed that they were being."

"I see. Since I was once friends with the Volturi's leaders, although we have drifted very far apart in our ways of thinking, they are gentler on my family than they would have been had it been some other Vampire that they did not know refusing to drink human blood." Carlisle rested his arm into a more comfortable position around his wife. "Needless to say, that protection is flimsy and weakens more every year."

"Understandable. In answer to your latest question, Emmett, the hare I summoned was a Patronus, which is a manifestation of the emotion happiness, which can be used in anything from chasing away Dementors and other dark creatures of lower intelligence to passing messages. The shape alters from person to person. Harry's, for instance, is a stag."

They processed this with interest.

"Interesting, very interesting." Carlisle murmured.

Harry couldn't help but anticipate some more extreme reactions when the realization finally sank in. For now, they were protected by the layer of incredulity that all humans wear around them to protect their emotional stability.

"Now, for my next question: do you know anything about the giant wolves in the forest? They're not werewolves, but they are intelligent, and Harry and I haven't been able to get a good enough grasp of their unique signatures to make any rational conclusions of our own."

"G-Giant wolves?" Esme stuttered, sitting up so straight that she nearly dislodged her husband's arm. "Here, in these woods?"

"Yes."

Silent glances were exchanged amongst the Vampires, and Rosalie quietly asked Alice, "Did you see this one coming?"

"No, not at all; even now, as I try to stretch my mind to see, there is nothing but a black hole where the information should be." Alice whispered back, pressing a hand to the side of her face, looking far more shocked than Luna had thought a Vampire could.

"Do you think that it's…?" Jasper queried, not asking anyone in particular.

"Who else could it possibly be?" Carlisle shook his head bitterly. "To think, after all these years, they finally came back."

Harry cleared his throat to get their wandering attention. "Um, what are you talking about? It sounds to me that you already know what they are, and we'd appreciate it if you'd let us in on the big secret."

"Years ago, this land was the territory of a Quileute tribe of Indians, said to be descended from wolves in their folklore. There is a lot of truth in their folklore, though, as members of their tribe do transform into wolves, or they did. These wolves are our inherent enemy, and are one of the few that present a true threat to our livelihood." He sighed. "I formed a treaty with the Alpha of the last pack nearly a hundred years ago, a treaty that allowed us to hunt in the forests surrounding these towns as long as we did not spill a drop of human blood."

"We have come and gone from this place, always careful to avoid those who might have remembered us, and the wolves soon died off, leaving the human members of the tribe. Our treaty has held for all of this time, although we can hardly be considered friendly with the Quileutes." Esme shook her head. "I do not understand what their return signifies."

"Excellent! That leaves us all in the same camp, although Luna and I are a little happier now that we know they're not out to kill humans." Harry laughed nervously. "How about this, we keep an eye on the wolves, since we were going to do that anyway, and let you know through Jasper if we hear anything pertinent?"

"Oh, would you?" Esme gushed before anyone could protest.

Luna shrugged. "We're a couple of bored teenagers who love a new project, especially if it might get us killed. I can't see a downside to this. And it gives Jasper yet another excuse to hang around and see Harry."

Harry blushed and half-heartedly shushed her, openly holding Jasper's hand.

000

End chapter 17


	18. Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

Jasper changed the subject when Alice opened her mouth to ask what would no doubt prove to be a very personal question about his very-new relationship with Harry, and since he remembered how they had treated Edward's former attachment to Bella, he rushed to say the first thing that came to mind.

"Harry killed Laurent this afternoon, using some kind of magic spell that cut off his head, and then he burned the body." He shot his boyfriend an admiring look. "He did it so fast that I didn't even get there in time to help him."

Dead silence descended in the room, and Luna could tell that this fact had shocked the Vampires into realizing just what Harry and her ability could really do in the real world. She shimmied a little closer to him, grasping the hand not already in Jasper's possessive grip.

"You killed him just like that? Laurent was a powerful vampire- surely you had some difficulty?" Carlisle probed, disbelief running beneath his words.

Harry shrugged. "Not really, no. He was laughably easy to manipulate into a vulnerable position, and from there on out it was simply a matter of my reflexes versus his. I was faster, obviously."

Emmett narrowed his eyes. "You have to have some pretty fast reflexes, then."

"I do, as a matter of fact. They've come in handy during the many situations similar to this afternoon's fiasco." Luna's grip tightened on his hand, so he stopped talking before he let something out that should better remain unsaid in the company of the non-magical.

"Situations such as?" Esme asked, tilting her head, the steadiness of her eyes betraying the innocent tone she used. She meant to get answers.

"Such as the usual shenanigans that a couple of delinquent magic-wielders get into when they think nobody's going to catch them." Harry smoothly answered; casually slipping his hand out of Luna's to flick a piece of hair out of his eyes. "Now, since Laurent was familiar with this area and not the compassionate type where human lives are concerned, I think that it can be assumed that he's not the only one. Can you describe any other Vampires that might be hunting these woods?"

"There shouldn't be any, especially if the wolves are really back for good." Carlisle reassured.

Luna sighed. "But what if someone does come here? What we're asking is if there is someone we should keep an eye out for."

"Well…" Rosalie spoke up, picking at her manicure. "There is this one woman who was in the same group as Laurent and this other Vampire that we killed named James. Her name is Victoria, and she's got long red hair."

They nodded. "Thanks. That was helpful. Is there anyone else?"

Rosalie looked around at her family. "Do you guys remember anybody else? Victoria is all I've got."

"I can't recall anyone else." Jasper said, looking bashfully at Harry through his eyelashes. Harry smiled at him.

"We appreciate the information that you did give us. Was there anything you wanted to ask us before we adjourn this little gathering?"

"Oh! Me!" Alice raised her hand before Jasper could stop her, and he groaned quietly. She giggled before asking, "How serious are you two?"

"As serious as people this early into a relationship can be." Harry replied briskly. "I'm sure he'll let you know when we decide to do something drastic."

"Okay, okay." She stood and brushed herself down. "I'm going to go see Bella now, and I'll be spending the night there, so you all can go without me."

Carlisle nodded acceptance, standing up and holding out a hand for his wife. "Thank you, both of you, for this gathering. Do let us know through Jasper if there is anything you need, or if you learn anything about those wolves."

"Of course." Harry shook his hand and let all of them except for Alice out the door. When he turned to bid her good-bye as well, he saw that she had cornered Luna in the living room, with one hand on either side of her head, braced against the back of the couch.

"I can see what you and Bella have now, Luna, but I just wanted to say that I also have feelings for her, and I don't intend to stop pursuing her just because you got to her before I could." Alice said in a low, almost dangerous purr. "I waited too damn long for my brother to let her go to give up now. Do you understand?"

Harry's mouth dropped open. Was Bella the lesbian equivalent of a woman-magnet?

"Uh…"

Alice immediately stood up straight, folding her hands behind her back, the picture of innocence. "Don't mind me! I was just leaving."

"Fancy that." Luna stood, straightening her shirt with a jerk. She was quivering with emotion. "Because so am I, and I think that we're going to the same place, too."

"You wouldn't!" Alice gasped, a hint of vulnerability entering her eyes. "Oh god, you would."

"Damn straight. Bella's _my _woman!"

And with that, Luna marched for the door, Alice on her heels.

Harry was left standing alone, scratching the back of his neck. "I guess I am spending the night alone, then."

000

The door bell rang, ringing out throughout the house and temporarily overriding the sound of the TV program she'd put on for lack of something better to pass the time with.

Bella stumbled off the couch, glowing with excitement. She raced to the door, skidding on her socks, and threw the door open. Much to her surprise, not one but two girls were standing there.

She caught herself checking out Luna's legs and blushed, turning towards her Vampire friend to distract herself. Unfortunately, Alice was also wearing a short skirt that showed an amount of leg that rivaled the blond. "Alice! Luna! Come inside."

"It's so wonderful to see you!" Alice crooned, wrapping her arms around her.

Bella inhaled her familiar, inhumanly delicious smell and sighed with happiness. "I missed you so much. There's nobody else like you around here."

"I missed you too, Bella." Alice rocked them gently, and then took her hand, leading her to the couch. Luna followed; sitting on Bella's other side.

Before she could say anything else, Alice pulled her onto her lap and just cuddled her. "How have you been, sweetie?"

"I wasn't very well for a long, long time, but I'm not mooning after Edward anymore. I missed your whole family, and I wish that you hadn't just taken off like that. I was really worried and insecure for a while because of that; I started to think that I didn't mean enough to you to deserve a proper goodbye."

"I am so sorry, honey." Alice kissed the top of her head. Bella frowned slightly. Alice had always been very affectionate with her, which had never been a problem with her before since she'd been sure in her sexuality, but now she wasn't so positive that this was okay. She looked over her shoulder at her girlfriend, who had tucked her pretty legs under herself.

Luna smiled softly at her and reached out to stroke her hair like she had in the clearing that afternoon. Bella's heart swelled with affection, and she craned her neck down to meet Luna as the blonde arched up.

They kissed chastely.

"Alice, I am dating Luna now. Is…is that alright with you?" Bella hazarded. She didn't know how the other girl stood on homosexuality and prayed that this wouldn't be the catalyst that drove them apart all over again.

She felt Alice squeeze her waist lightly. "I don't mind that you're gay, Bella, if that's what you meant."

"That was part of it." Bella nodded. "I hope that the three of us can be great friends."

Alice smiled, choking back her own emotions for the time being. Bella was fragile when it came to her heart, so she was going to have to really work at this. "Of course! Luna and I were acquainted back at her house, and I think that she's a very nice girl."

Bella smiled brilliantly, relieved. "Great!"

Squeezing her again, Alice smiled back mischievously. "Now, moving on to more important matters; what are you doing tomorrow?"

Bella didn't catch the subtle snub at her girlfriend and answered, "I didn't have any plans, other than to spend time with Luna. Why do you ask?"

"I was just thinking that our reunion won't be complete without a proper shopping spree. Luna can come as well if she likes. What do you say? I'll even buy you lunch!"

She pretended to think it over. "Hmm…spend the day with two of the most important people in my life, or sit at home all alone? Which shall I choose?"

Luna snickered, rubbing her calf through her jeans. Alice could feel Bella shiver from the caress and her nostrils flared. She wanted to make Bella shiver like that too, but it wouldn't be appropriate to do so now.

"Don't leave me hanging like this!" Alice at last burst out impatiently, lightly smacking Bella's nose. "Naughty Bella! You've gotten very mean."

Bella giggled. "Are you crazy? Of course I'll go!" she turned to look at Luna, who was exploring the angles of her leg lazily, now rubbing the heel of her hand against a sore muscle just above the back of her knee. "Babes, do you think that you could abandon your glorious research long enough to spend the day with us?"

"As if I would leave you alone in the arms of another woman!" Luna teased, secretly serious underneath her jovial tone. She shot Alice a dark look when Bella wasn't looking, and Alice suggestively inhaled Bella's neck as payback.

Luna almost growled, but contained herself. Bella could make her own decisions, whether she knew that she had decisions to make at all, and she was not going to interfere with that!

Against her mental virtuosity, her hand snaked higher until Bella squeaked softly.

000

Harry sighed, his hands supporting his head. The ceiling was boring to stare at now, the lines tracing it long ago having proven to be poor means of entertainment. Maybe he should get up and make himself something warm to drink? He'd heard that that was a great way to make you sleep better.

He groaned, rolled over several times, and ended up clutching a pillow to his chest, feeling utterly pathetic.

"Damn it! Why do I feel so lonely?"

Finally, fed up with his inability to just relax and go to sleep, he flicked on the lamp and got out of bed. The shag carpet tried to swallow his feet as he stalked through the house, and he wrinkled his nose in disgust.

He switched on the light in the kitchen, and jumped a foot in the air when he saw Jasper sheepishly sitting at the table.

"You…you nearly gave me a fucking heart attack!" His hand reflexively snapped out, and he smacked him upside the head. "What kind of creep sits in someone else's kitchen in the middle of the night? Sheesh!"

Jasper fiddled with his hands. "I'm sorry, Harry."

"No you're not." Harry retorted without heat, taking a mug out of a cabinet and filling it with water from the tap. He waved his wand over it to clean the water just in case, and then stuck a teabag in it from the chipped jar on the counter. He heated it magically, and sat down on the chair across from Jasper.

"So, did you have something to say to me, or could you simply not tear yourself from my side?" Harry asked, blowing on his tea.

Jasper smiled that same bashful smile from earlier. "The latter. Originally, since I believed that you would still be up and about, I merely planned to kiss you goodnight without my family breathing down our necks, but then I sensed how restless you were so I stayed."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Vampires can do that?"

"Do what?"

"Sense what mood people are in, or were it just something to do with my body temperature?" Harry twirled the mug.

"It's not something all Vampires can do. It's something that _I _can do." Jasper said quietly. "I understand if that is upsetting for you-"

He realized that Harry wasn't upset, even though he was frowning.

"Harry?"

"Hm? Oh. No, it isn't too upsetting. It would have been another thing entirely if you could read my thoughts, but since its just emotions, I don't mind." He chortled. "I never was any good at hiding them anyway."

"I see." Jasper nodded.

They were quiet, and then Harry began to slowly drink his tea now that it was at an acceptable temperature.

"Hey, Jasper?"

"Yes?"

He hesitated, and then decided to just go for it. "Would you like to spend the night here?"

000

End chapter 18

So far I am kicking the ass of my writer's block for this story, but I can't do shit with any of my other (and sadly far more important) projects. If any of you are religious, pray that I will be more motivated/imaginative/energized. Seriously. My work is starting to suffer, and I hate this funk that I'm in. I want out!

Sorry for the rant.


	19. Chapter 19

A/N: Sorry I missed a day.

CHAPTER 19

"I beg your pardon?" Jasper asked, wanting to make sure that he'd heard him right. Sometimes his desires would trick him into thinking that they could be acted upon, and that was not a mistake he wanted to make with Harry.

"I asked if you wanted to spend the night. You can sleep with me or watch me sleep or…?" Harry waved a hand in a swirl. "Or whatever you want, really; I guess what I am trying to say here, is that you don't have to sit out here alone."

"If you're sure that it won't be an imposition, then I will go wherever you go." Jasper smiled, and then jumped slightly when Harry leaned across the table to kiss his cheek.

"Good! I'd hate to think about you out here by yourself, and I couldn't sleep anyway so you can keep me company." He picked up his tea and jerked his head. "Come on, it's cold in here. My room is much warmer, and we can sit on the bed instead of these stupid chairs."

Jasper smirked. "If you don't like the chairs, then why did you buy them?"

"I don't remember…" Harry shrugged. "It's cool, though; we're not planning on staying here more than a couple of months, tops. Shit happens, and we might end up staying longer, but we're both fairly sure that we will be out of here before you know it."

He switched off the kitchen light, and led Jasper through his house on silent feet to his bedroom. Jasper didn't make a verbal comment on the messy room, but he did raise an eyebrow. Sitting cautiously on the edge of the bed, which squeaked, he patted the spot next to him.

"Now that you've lured me into your den of sin, you plan to simply stand over there without even touching me?"

Harry snickered and came over to sit down, adjusting the lamp shade once he did since it had a habit of leaning heavily to one side. Jasper twisted his fingers together, and then seemingly pulled himself together because he leaned down and very lightly, so lightly that Harry almost couldn't feel it, kissed his neck. He then pressed his nose into it and inhaled slowly and deeply.

"I meant to tell you this before, but you smell very nice."

His face completely red, Harry squeaked out a 'thank you' and wished that he wasn't such a virgin.

"You said earlier that you couldn't sleep, and you feel so restless." He kissed his neck again before retreating to brush some of his hair back out of his eyes. "You that I can't read your mind, but did you want to tell me why you feel so conflicted?"

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. I guess that a lot of things are really setting in deeply, now that the shock that I've shielded myself with is fading."

"What kind of things?" Jasper lightly shoved on his arm until he lay down, sliding his legs under the covers while remaining upright with his tea in his hands.

"A lot of people that I cared about are dead now, and sometimes I forget that and I catch myself thinking about how I am going to tell them about you, or how much they will want to meet you, but then I remember that they aren't here anymore." His breathing hitched, and Jasper was sure that he was going to cry, but he pulled himself together. "Its like getting punched in the stomach, and I don't know whether to take it like a man or cry."

The blonde slid closer, coming to sit against the headboard. "There's nothing wrong with grieving for loved ones, especially if you would have sought their guidance or wanted their approval of us."

Harry nodded, biting his lip. "The thing is, I _know _that, but it doesn't stop the feeling, and when I do decide that crying for them would be alright, appropriate even, I can't. The emotions just get bottled up, so I push them down, and then they come right back to get me, especially on nights like this one when I think that I'm alone."

"Is that why you and Luna are so close, because she distracts you from the memories of these people?"

"That's part of it, but it's also bittersweet because she also reminds me of the days when there were so many more of us." He rubbed at his eyes. "I'm sorry for dumping my emotional baggage on you, Jasper. I didn't mean to, and this isn't what I had in mind when I invited you into my bedroom." Harry bent down to blow on his tea, and was about to drink it when he started laughing quietly. "That sounded really bad."

He chuckled and caught him under the chin, turning his face to face him, preventing him from taking a sip of tea. "Yes, it did. What did you have in mind, if not this?"

"Well, I never intend to talk about my issues, since it just dredges up more and more until I can't stop. I was hoping that you could help keep my mind off of them, and I never was very fond of sleeping alone."

"Hm." Jasper kissed him then, without warning. When he pulled back, he scanned his eyes and frowned. "That seemed to help a little bit, but I can actually feel you pushing your shadows down underneath false cheerfulness. I cannot in good conscience allow you to continue in this self-destructive path. We are going to talk about this."

"No, Jasper, we don't have to do this tonight-"

Jasper leaned in close and playfully kissed his nose. "Yes, we do. Not only will this unburden you emotionally, it will give me a chance to learn more about you and the kind of people that helped you grow up into the lovely young man I am having trouble keeping my hands off of." That comment earned him a brief giggle, and a genuine sparkling of affectionate mirth. He glowed inside, happy to have gotten that much out of the reticent brunette. He then dove in head-first. "How did these friends of yours die?"

"Oh god, you would start with the big guns, wouldn't you?"

The blonde just looked at him, and then wryly said, "You're stalling."

"I know." Harry sighed miserably, and took a long gulp of tea before strengthening his grip around it and snuggling into Jasper. "Gosh, you're bony! Here, but this blanket around you."

"First you stall, and now you fuss about me like you are a hen and I am your favorite chick." Jasper sighed, catching Harry around the hips as he bent over him while tucking in the blanket with the lovingness of a well-trained nurse. "Come down here."

Harry froze, looking down at him wide-eyed, and then a devilish smile turned up the corners of his mouth. The shadows of his misery were nowhere to be seen. "Are you trying to seduce me?"

"Yes." Jasper squeezed his hips, and tried to tug him down to lie against him, but Harry resisted, reaching over for where he'd set his tea on the bedside table. It was only once it was safely warming his hands once more that he consented to be held against Jasper's chest. "You must be perfect." Jasper sighed, without preamble, into his wild hair.

"Pardon?"

"I said that you must be perfect; you smell good, your skin is soft everywhere that I can feel except for some parts of your hands, and your hair feels like heavenly silk." He buried his nose into it. "You smell similar to Luna- do you use the same hair cosmetics?"

"I ran out of my own, so I have been stealing hers. Don't tell her, please."

Jasper nodded his agreement, still smelling his hair. "You are a very clever man, Harry, but I still want to know how these friends died, what their names were, and the things that you enjoyed doing with them."

"You can lead a horse to the trough, but you can't make him drink." Harry quoted, stroking the lean lengths of Jasper's fingers where they held fast to his middle.

"True, but you are not a horse and I could always tear myself away from your addictive warmth and deprive you of my company until you agree to my demands."

Harry wrinkled his nose and joked, "Were you by any chance a tactician while you were human?"

"Yes, during the American Civil War. My particular skills have allowed my family to avoid some nasty situations, of which I am very proud. Sometimes, I think that I am too much of a hassle for my family, or that I do not contribute enough to our coven. Those times that I can be useful help allay those fears, and I can convince myself that I am useful."

"Why would you be a hassle?" Harry murmured, now fully experiencing the influence of the combination of hot tea, warm blankets, and Jasper's hands in his hair lulling him into a doze.

"Because my will is very weak when it comes to human blood if I see it shed, even in small amounts."

Harry frowned, rousing himself slightly. "But here you are, cuddling me like the friendliest teddy bear on earth."

"I know that I seem harmless right now, but I almost attacked Bella last year at her birthday party, and if Edward hadn't stopped me, she would not be here today."

Instead of the horror he was expecting, all he got was an accepting nod and a sleepy kiss to the collarbone. "I am sorry that your family and Bella had to go through that. That must have been very traumatic for all of you; how did you handle the guilt from almost acting upon something that is in your nature?"

"Ah, I am working on it. Thankfully, I have far more guilt from before I joined the Cullens. I was…not a very nice man. I manipulated many things, living and dead, and used my charms and intelligence to live the way I wanted to without regard for others and the happiness that I destroyed in my quest for self-fulfillment."

"Selfishness resides in the hearts of the best of us." Harry comforted, petting his arm like he was a cat. "What you should focus on is not where you have gone wrong in the past, but how you can do good things in the future."

Jasper smiled into his hair. "That's good advice; it's really too bad that this young man I know wouldn't be able to follow it."

"Who?"

"You, of course; you feel guilt when you think about these dead friends of yours, and I feel guilt when I think about how many young lives I ruined or ended for my agenda. We can both be guilty together and wallow in misery the rest of our lives, which is the easy thing, or we can fight uphill and choose to overcome our emotional battles."

Harry was chewing his lip in thought, obviously drowsy by this point, but still thinking over what he'd said. "Okay."

"Okay what?" jasper asked, puzzled by the nonsensical response.

"They died in many different ways, none of them peaceful, but all for a mysterious idea that I don't think any of them, or even I, fully understand. They either gave their lives or had their lives ripped away from them for 'the greater good'. I do not know if they are happy to have died for such an ambiguous cause because a cause is better than no cause, or if they are just as angry as I am that there was not something better to put on their gravestones."

"Why did they need to die for a cause in the first place?"

Fear entered the kaleidoscope of emotion, and Harry sighed in a long shuddering breath. "There was a very bitter, twisted child years ago who decided that he hated everyone who was not magical. This child grew up to be a man who became the most feared Wizard ever to live in the last thousand years- people were so terrified that they wouldn't even say his name. Many of my loved ones died in the second war against him, but we won in the end. Our world is a lot more unstable now, and I am almost afraid to see what it looks like now that so much was destroyed." He swiveled his head to press his cheek against Jasper's cool one. The jolt of cold woke him up further. "There were not many of us to begin with, as you might have guessed, but now there are so few and so many of them are refugees or have simply gone into the non-magical world and decided to stay there, that I think that the magical community will simply never revive itself."

"Some things get broken into such tiny fragments that they cannot be put back together again, and so are swept away instead." Jasper said in dawning understanding. "But wait, if you fought in this war, and Luna did as well, that would make you teenagers fighting an adult's battle!"

Harry laughed bitterly. "A hundred years ago, the concept of teenagers as we know it today did not exist. Why is it that people far younger than me were once trusted to be working members of society, and succeeded as such, but now we are not?"

Jasper sighed. "What are you saying, that you advocate child soldiers and toddlers in factories?"

"Of course not! Don't exaggerate; what I am trying to express is that, before 1941 when the idea was coined, the years of boring and unproductive limbo that so many teenagers are expected to live, did not exist because there was no need for it. There are children, and there are adults. When you are no longer a child in body, there is no need to deliberately cater to the low expectations of society and remain one in mind and behavior simply because you are not required to take a stand. I was capable of leading attacks, and I had guidance and training from experienced fighters, so I did. It's as simple as that. If my world had stopped to realize that they trusted their future to the hands of a teenaged boy and put someone else in my place who did not know the things I knew about our enemy, we would have lost the war. Do you see what I am trying to tell you?"

"I'm starting to understand, but I am not sure that I know what you mean by 'leading'. What, exactly, was your military rank?"

"Oh, I was never given an official rank. This was sort of a people-led war. We had everybody from veterans from the first war to housewives to schoolchildren, and even some creatures, fighting."

"Can you give me an equivalent to what you were, then?" Jasper wheedled, tugging on his hair.

"Alright, alright, I'm thinking! I'd say a General of some sorts, although I was chiefly on my own."

Jasper choked.

000

End chapter 19

(sigh) and they bond…


	20. Chapter 20

CHAPTER 20

"Are you on a mission to shock me, Harry, or have you simply lived a very interesting life?" Jasper had his emotions under control, and was doing his best to be open-minded about this. The last thing he wanted to establish between them was the idea that Harry couldn't truly confide in him.

Harry mumbled something incomprehensible before clearing his throat and trying again. "A little bit of both, but mostly it's the weird life story."

Jasper rubbed his back, careful to avoid putting his lukewarm hand on his bare neck though he wanted to. "Did you choose the life you lead?"

"I think so…I'm not sure how much was chosen for me and how much I did on my own without being manipulated. There was this man, Albus, who I thought of as a sort of mentor. He was my old school's Headmaster, and a well-respected man; he looked a bit like Santa Claus, actually. I found out later, though, after he died, that he was behind a lot of things that upset me, and many of his decisions were flawed." Harry plucked at the covers, shifting his weight restlessly. Jasper instinctively tried to hold him still, but stopped as soon as he realized what he was doing.

"How did this man, Albus, die?"

"A man who I have never gotten along with killed him, and I witnessed this without understanding why. Later on I found out that Albus ordered him to do it, and it took me some time to come to terms with that." He sighed. "But enough about me; I think that I have more than fulfilled a decent quota of talking about my miserable past tragedies for one night, and its time for you to tell me more about your career as a self-serving ass, as you have hinted."

Jasper grinned. "That's one way of putting it. I spent years turning Vampires and using their superior strength for my own uses, and then I killed them once it started to fade."

"How does this fluctuation of energy work, anyway?" Harry asked, snuggling down deeper into the blankets and making sure that Jasper accompanied him. "Oh, and if I get a chill, I am making you sleep on the couch next time."

"Point taken." Jasper made as though to move farther away, and Harry grabbed hold of his arm, forcing it around him.

"I haven't caught cold yet!" He stroked his arm, looking at him reproachfully. "Honestly! Talk about jumping to conclusions."

Jasper sighed and settled back down. "Well, to answer your question, a Vampire who has just been turned still has fresh human blood in their veins, although it is now infected with our venom. For however long it takes the blood to congeal and rot, the Vampire is unusually strong and emotionally-unstable. Freshly-turned Vampires are very often needy and will leap to please whoever they deem an authority figure, which is usually the Vampire responsible for turning them."

"I see. And, if these Vampires were still younger and stronger than you, then how did you manage to kill so many without coming away from the fight missing fingers or bits of yourself?" Harry propped himself up on his elbow and looked at him curiously. "You look like you're in pretty good shape to me, but if the power balance is that different, then you've got to have some seriously sneaky ninja fighting moves."

"I hate to be a disappointment, but there are no martial arts involved, and I have hardly come out unscathed."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Okay; show me what you mean. Are you missing toes?" he lifted the blanket briefly to peer underneath it into the darkness. "I can't tell because you've got your socks on."

"I've got all my limbs and everything is still in working order, Harry." He was very amused to see Harry get more and more puzzled with his deliberately obscure answers.

"Then what did you mean-"

"Bite marks." He enunciated each syllable slowly and carefully, watching Harry's face carefully for the first sign of disgust. It never came, only interest.

"Really? Can I, you know, see?" he waved his hands. "You don't have to show me if you don't want to, of course…!"

"I don't mind if you don't mind me taking off my shirt."

Harry laughed. "Do I look like I'd mind?"

"Pervert." Jasper retorted mildly, sitting up and pressing his palm against Harry's chest to force him into lying back down. He reached down and grasped the hem and the collar of his shirt before pulling it over his head smoothly. The lamplight showed the faint glitter of a multitude of silvery scars, all in neat pairs of crescents, covering a large portion of his skin. He turned this way and that so that Harry could glimpse his back, on which were several elongated slashes, like some wild animal had clawed him.

"Despite all of these marks, I still killed all of them. I was always victorious, and that is my one feeling of pride towards what I did."

Harry regarded him silently, and then cautiously stretched out his hand, as if he was about to put it into the mouth of a crocodile instead of against bare skin. He touched the closest scar, an almost miniature set. "Children too?"

"Only three, and only because I was desperate for more soldiers; their understanding of the world is flawed even after the clarity of the venom has changed their minds, and they make my heart hurt with their wild emotions and unfettered pain and joy." His eyes fluttered when Harry slid his hand around him to feel for the slashes, which he dug his nails into just slightly, dragging them down along their lengths.

"Are they sensitive at all? You didn't react to what I did just now."

"My face is not as expressive as I would like. They do hurt a little bit when you do that, but not by much. I would prefer it if you wouldn't advertise that, though."

"It's never good to have weaknesses." Harry agreed, shifting the angle of his hand so that the pads of his fingers traced the slashes now, far more gently. "Is pain the only feeling you get from them?"

Jasper hissed slightly. "No."

"That was rhetorical, Jasper." Harry smirked at him, dropping his hand and curling tighter under the covers. "Will you turn off the lamp? I am too comfortable now."

Jasper, still a little numb-shocked by Harry's sudden boldness and abrupt return to his normal behavior, nodded silently and did as he was asked. He lay down beside him, turning his head so that his hair brushed against Harry's. It was very different from resting beside Alice like they did after long hunts, and Harry's deepening breathing lulled him into a half-aware trance.

It was peaceful, and for the first time in centuries, his heart felt light and unburdened. Perhaps Harry was not the only one who needed to get things off of his chest.

000

A scant two houses from them, Alice watched the steady rise and fall of the two human girls' chests as they slept.

Luna stirred slightly when Alice reached out and tucked a corner of blanket that had slipped off the crowded bed around her, turning her face into Bella's shoulder and tensing the muscles of her thigh briefly before slipping back into deeper sleep.

Alice's eyes jealously traced the arm wrapped shyly around the blonde's waist, comparing their ample contact with one another to the single ankle Bella had wrapped around her calf in her sleep. It simply wasn't fair!

That day in September when she'd first seen Bella across the cafeteria, she'd passed the sudden quickening of her thoughts and unnecessary breath as a fluke. After all, she had been faithfully maintaining her marriage with Jasper at the time. The feeling and accompanying thoughts were buried before Edward could notice and comment on them, and before she knew what was happening, her brother had swooped down and swept the unsuspecting girl off of her feet.

She twisted the sheet in her hands pensively, and then leaned down over the brunette, ever so gently taking hold of a lock of her hair and pressing it to her nose.

To counter-act Rosalie's honesty about her negativity towards the human, Alice had played the loving sister at first to fulfill her own visions and then to make Edward happy. She'd wanted Bella to feel like part of the family, and she attributed the persistent warmth in her chest with that desire.

It wasn't until James had almost killed her, almost taken her away for good (no more Bella!) that she'd finally realized how she truly felt. Of course, at the time, her feelings were utterly inappropriate. Not only was she married, Bella was Edward's steady girlfriend, and her visions had assured her that she would end up a part of their family as Edward's happy spouse.

And for a while, that was okay. She could live with her unsatisfied and unfulfilled desires as long as everyone around her stayed happy. It was a real struggle to keep her thoughts suppressed around Edward, though, and even harder to keep her hands to herself around Bella, but she managed.

However, when Jasper almost killed her, she knew that enough was enough. She hunted first, to take the crazed edge off of her thoughts, and then spent the rest of the night comforting Jasper with her presence while mentally planning out a perfect speech to confess her feelings.

To her disappointment, Edward convinced everyone else in their family that moving away without even saying goodbye was the best possible method for keeping Bella protected from another such attack.

None of her family noticed, but as soon as they arrived in Alaska and went about acclimating themselves to their new environment, she'd gone on a long walk alone in the woods and sobbed without tears for what felt like years, unaware that Bella was also crying at that same exact moment, heartbroken that she hadn't said goodbye.

She kissed the lock of hair, smelled it again, and placed it back against the pillow.

And now, after finally coming back to Forks and given what she'd thought was an open path to Bella's heart, she discovered an entirely unanticipated and unseen obstacle in the form of a strong-willed, and really quite beautiful, blonde _witch. _

She shook her head a little in disbelief. What were the odds that the competition would turn out not to be Mike Stanley like she'd been half-expecting or even Edward, but another girl named after the moon who Bella barely knew.

A shiver went down her spine as she remembered the hare that had come out of her wand. It was beautiful, but unexpected, just like her.

Even now, she wasn't sure why the two girls were together. She could see, much to her irritation, nothing but gray static when she tried to see their future together. "Why you?" she whispered without realizing it.

Luna's breathing shifted, and her fingers clenched before unfolding in time with the blonde's eyes opening. "Because the mysteries of the heart are beyond reason; who can say why young men love old women sometimes? Why do monsters love their prey occasionally? Why can two people live next door to each other for decades without noticing, but one day realize that they love each other? Why can two strangers look at each other and see someone that they want to spend the rest of their lives with without ever speaking a word?"

Alice had to concede that. "You sure wake up easy." She settled for grumbling instead.

"I'm a light sleeper." Luna's eyes narrowed. "And I have trouble fully submitting to the sandman with you sitting there staring at me like a demented gargoyle."

"Are you calling me ugly?" Alice asked lightly, doing her best to diffuse the blonde before she could actually work herself up and possibly wake up Bella. "That's not very nice."

"Neither is stealing someone else's girlfriend."

"I love her!" Alice snapped, realizing with a jolt that it was true. She did not simply like Bella anymore, she loved her.

Luna raised an eyebrow. "I am very sorry to hear that. You can't help who you love, and I hate standing the in the way of your sincere feelings." She reached out and actually squeezed Alice's hand. "I will try to protect Bella's chastity from you with the utmost delicacy towards your fragile heart."

"Are you making fun of me?"

Luna rolled her eyes with a soft sigh. "Really, you need to stop being to suspicious. I'm a nice girl- just ask Harry. I had no intention of stomping on someone else's feelings when I let Bella kiss me this afternoon. If I had known about you before hand, maybe I wouldn't have leaped head-first into this, but maybe I would have. Only god knows now."

"Well, if we're going to be proper rivals, maybe I should know more about you? You know, keep your friends close and your enemies closer." Alice giggled into her hand to muffle it when Luna looked at her strangely.

"You first, pixie-girl."

000

End chapter 20

So tired…


	21. Chapter 21

CHAPTER 21

Harry woke up groggy and confused, knowing immediately before he could even determine his own body's presence that he'd had another of his near-sleepless nights, except that this time he didn't feel depressed or like he was about to explode with negativity.

He frowned, and then slowly became aware of the soft pillow against his cheek, the soft blankets that still smelled musty even after being washed several times in quick succession, and finally a very uncomfortable freezing _thing _trapping him and holding him still.

Panicking at the perceived threat to his ability to function, Harry cleared his eyesight until everything resolved itself into blurs and reached for his glasses. Grasping them, he lifted them carefully and placed them on his nose, seeing that he was, as suspected, in his shared bedroom. It looked no different than it had yesterday morning, except that this time he couldn't hear the soft hum of the water running in the shower where Luna had been.

Luna! With a start he remembered that she'd gone with Alice to spend the night at Bella's last night after their scary little face-off in the living room, something that he was still trying to recover from simply because it had been so strange and out of character for both of them. So, provided that Luna was still two whole houses away, it meant that there was no way that it was her arm or one of her scarves around him right now.

Did he really want to know? There are some things better left unknown, after all.

Before he could slip back into sleep from his own phony philosophizing, the thing flexed like and arm, and what felt distinctly like fingers curved against his stomach, tickling him. He stifled an unmanly giggle, holding the fingers still without thinking.

"Are you awake?" Jasper's voice murmured and he could hear the soft rustle of book pages. "Harry? It's almost seven in the morning."

He stiffened. "Is Luna back?"

"No, she's not back yet. From what I have gathered from my sisters, sleepovers between females normally don't end early in the morning." His arm tightened briefly, comfortingly, before relaxing once more. "I don't think that she'll be back for several more hours at the least, but I don't know your friends as well as you do."

Harry hummed without giving a real answer or comment.

"Harry?" Jasper probed tentatively, shutting his book and laying it on top of the covers with a soft 'swish'. He leaned closer, and Harry could feel his cool breath on his cheek.

"Hm?" he acknowledged, tilting his head to try and see if Jasper wanted to look him in the eye. "What?"

"Your bed smells like her."

Harry blinked before he realized why that simple sentence had held so much repressed emotion, the chief of which was insecurity. Without giving himself time to chicken out, he dislodged Jasper's fingers from around his stomach and raised them to his mouth before slowly kissing their tips. "We share it because it is cheaper this way and saves on the heating bill. Also, we are both to selfish to sleep on the couch."

"So you do not sleep together because of romantic inclination…?" Jasper pushed, brushing a hand through Harry's hair.

"No, of course not!" Harry objected, sitting up straight and looking down at him accusingly. "You've said it yourself, we are friends. Nothing more, I promise. I would never do that to you- should I feel my affections for you fading, I won't keep it from you and have an affair behind your back." He leaned closer, making sure that Jasper was taking in everything he said. "I know it's old-fashioned, but I always believed personally that one lover at a time is more than enough for me to handle."

Jasper didn't reply, caught up in those green, green eyes and the realization that Harry was not lying to him.

"Is that clear?" Harry asked, putting a force behind it that he wouldn't normally use unless giving orders that he didn't want questioned. Jasper picked up on it and smirked in the pale morning light.

"It is clear as crystal."

"Good." Harry smiled and then leaned down to peck him on the lips. "And yes, I know that my breath smells."

Jasper just laughed, muffled since he kept his mouth closed, but still there. Harry rolled his eyes at him but got out of bed, heading for the bathroom. He could hear Jasper re-opening his book, and wondered which one it was.

Lying alone in the bed with his cheek pressed against the delightfully warm imprint in the mattress where Harry's scent was the strongest, Jasper turned the page in a book titled, 'Vampires and How to Spot Them' by Clarence Tauter. On the inside cover, there was a handwritten inscription that went,

_Dear Luna,_

_I know how interested you are in creatures, so I got you this. Happy 16__th__ Birthday and much love!_

_Hermione_

He wondered who this Hermione was, and planned to ask Harry later. Hopefully she wasn't dead, since such talks were best had in small doses with a sufficient amount of time between them. To bring up something like that now would be too much too fast.

000

Charlie paced in the hall below the landing that he knew contained his daughter's bedroom. He felt that he ought to leave her alone, but it as almost noon and she never slept this late, weekend or no weekend.

Finally his curiosity won out over his desire to give Bella her privacy and he began to climb the stairs. When he was halfway up, he froze and listened hard for any sounds of movement. There weren't any, so he continued climbing.

He rapped lightly on the door with his knuckles. "Bella? Are you decent?"

No answer, and then the door opened and Alice stood on the other side. She beamed when she saw him, and shifted to the side with a finger over her lips to reveal his daughter and that British girl Luna still fast asleep.

She stepped outside onto the landing with him and closed the door quietly behind her. "Hi!"

"Alice? What are you doing here?" he shuffled his feet. "I mean, not that I'm not happy to see you, but I was under the impression that your family had settled down in San Francisco."

"Oh, we did, but I came with Jasper here to have a meeting with two kids we know now from Britain, Luna and Harry. Luna's the other girl in there- we decided to have a sleepover, and I hope you don't mind, but I think we ate the rest of the ice cream." Alice shrugged helplessly. "We didn't realize it was all gone until we went back for more."

He grinned. "That's fine. I'm glad that you came back to see Bella; she's really missed you. She has girl friends at her school, but I don't think that she gets on with any of them as well as she does with you."

Alice looked down. 'I know, and I missed her as well. We are just trying to get back to where we were before I left."

Charlie nodded. "That's fine with me. Just…just don't do it again. It wasn't pretty last time, and she was just now getting back on track. I don't want to watch her relapse so soon."

"I won't if I don't have to." Alice assured him.

"That's all I wanted to hear. If any of you girls need me, I'm fishing with Billy."

Alice smiled sweetly at him. "Thanks for telling us."

"Sure. Oh, and could you do me a favor?"

She raised an eyebrow at his hesitation. "Sure. What do you need?"

"Keep an eye on that other girl; I don't know her like I know you, and I can't trust her just yet."

"You have my word."

He looked relieved. 'Thanks, Alice. I'll be seeing you!" he waved and walked back down the stairs, much relieved to know that Bella hadn't run away or started making origami cranes for occult reasons in her room.

Alice watched him go and then stepped back inside the room to find Luna's amused eyes surveying her. "I like him."

"What do you mean?" Alice asked, sitting on the bed and checking on Bella to see if she was waking up. There was no sign of it, so she gestured at Luna to hurry her up.

"He views the unfamiliar with a suspicious eye, very much like someone I used to know."

"Oh? What was this person's name?"

Luna smirked. "Mad-Eye is what we called him, but his real name was Alastor Moody. He was a bit mad, to tell the truth, and he was always talking about being always on our guard. The way he would enforce this attitude, though, was kind of funny. He would sneak up behind us and shout 'constant vigilance!' to make us jump."

She snorted. "Are you serious?"

"Oh, hells yes. He was a real tool, but his paranoia could be useful sometimes." Her eyes softened and she looked down. "I miss him."

"What happened?"

"He died." Luna shrugged, affecting boredom. "A lot of people have died, and they continue to die every day and night, so I really should get over it."

"That's a horrible way to think! Everyone deserves to be remembered."

Luna blinked. "I never said that I didn't remember them, but I think one of life's biggest ironies is the sheer number of people that stop truly living in exchange for focusing on the past. Their souls shrivel, and no one remembers _them _when they are gone because they never bothered to do anything memorable for themselves. I believe in living as much of life as you can for the sake of those who have passed on and those who haven't been born yet."

Alice looked at her without speaking for several moments before quietly saying, "You are…the way you think is very new to me, and it seems a little strange, but at the same time it makes perfect sense. I guess that I never thought about it this way."

"That's okay. Back in school they used to call me 'Loony' instead of Luna because they didn't understand me."

"That is really sad." Alice actually looked like she was about to hug her or something, so Luna stuck her tongue out to remind her that they were still rivals in the great battle for Bella's heart.

"I didn't mind much; kids are cruel. They tear other people down to gain self-confidence, or just because the other kids are doing it. It's not something that should be taken personally, but unfortunately, teasing like that always seems to happen at the most crucial ages." She sighed bitterly. "If I ever have children, I will try and find some way to keep them away from the unwitting cruelty, and later witting cruelty, of their peers."

"And how are you going to do that? Lock them up? Kids need to socialize!"

Luna shrugged again. "I might home school them. I haven't decided, and nor do I need to since I obviously don't have children yet. I'm a little young for it to be a sensible decision on my part, and Harry doesn't like it when I'm not sensible about important things. He's okay with the Nargles, though, so I am okay with his baggage, which trumps mine in size and variety."

Alice frowned, the majority of what Luna said going over her head. She had a sneaking feeling that there was an enormous, epic-worthy, back-story to the two British teens and she wanted to know what it was!

However, Luna wasn't going to crack, she could tell.

As if she could hear her thoughts, the blonde smiled innocently at her while shooting daggers out of her eyes. Before they could exchange harsh words, however, Bella stirred and opened her eyes.

"What are you guys talking about?"

"Nargles."

"Babies."

000

End chapter 21


	22. Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

Harry stumbled out of the bathroom, drying his hair, to discover Jasper reading one of their magical texts on Vampires. He was reading the section on hunting them with raised eyebrows and taking notes on the back of his hand.

"Hey, Harry."

"Hey." Harry greeted back, sitting down beside him and looking over his shoulder. There was a full-color illustration of stakes in different kinds of wood with a wide range of sharp tips, and one of them was two-pronged. "Whoa, I haven't had a chance to look at this one before. I didn't know that there were this many different kinds."

"You're telling me. I wasn't aware that these kinds of things existed. Before now, I thought the only way to kill a Vampire was to be a Vampire and behead them somehow and then burn the body."

Harry blinked slowly and then laughed a bit. "Wow, that was…graphic."

Jasper grinned and lightly bumped their foreheads together. "Sorry. I am not used to censoring myself. I'll try to be more sensitive to your delicate stomach."

"Oh, shut up. Come on, what do you want to do today?"

"I don't know; lying here reading this fascinating book is sounding appealing, though."

Harry sat back and tilted his head from one side to the next, peering at him with narrowed eyes. He then folded his hands and shook his head in mock-sadness. "I was right. I should have known."

"Should have known what?" Jasper prodded him with one bony finger right in the sensitive part behind his knee. Harry squeaked and batted his hand away.

"That tickles!"

'Then be assured that I will continue to tickle you until you tell me what you were thinking about just now!" he turned up the force of his tickling, seizing Harry by the thigh and flipping him so that he could tickle both knees at the same time.

"S-Stop! I can't talk!" Harry tried to protest, doing his best to wriggle out of the situation without using any self-defense measure. Finally, he decided that he might as well since it wouldn't actually cause Jasper any harm. His left leg, the one not currently being tickled, swung up and his heel caught Jasper's jaw, knocking him to one side.

He rolled over off the bed onto the floor and yanked swiftly on Jasper's leg, dragging him onto the carpeted floor. He sat on his stomach and folded his arm while tensing his legs to make them heavier.

"What's your excuse now?" Jasper asked, grinning. "Nice moves, by the way."

"Thanks. And I was laughing at you because I didn't pick up on how much of a book worm you were, even though the signs are pretty obvious." He laughed. "You even prop yourself up like Hermione when she's reading in bed."

Jasper frowned, confused. "Hermione?" the book inscription! "Is she alive?"

"Yeah; she's back in England with her boyfriend Ron, no doubt trying to sort out the mess left back there even though it's really beyond saving at this point." He sighed, getting off of Jasper's chest and sitting beside him with his back leaning against the side of the bed. "It's depressing; do you think I should try and convince her to come up here to take a vacation with Luna and I? She's kind of a workaholic when she gets a cause into her head. I thank god that she hasn't discovered Africa yet, because she'd be dead in six months from exhaustion."

Jasper thought it over. "Well, I haven't met her, but judging from what you've told me, you should tell her to come out here or somewhere else where she can't work."

"Cool! So, does this mean that you're okay with me nipping over to England to pay a quick visit and possibly drag her over here?"

"You're leaving?" Jasper demanded, sitting up. "Why?"

"I just told you why. Look, I thought it over in the shower, and I realized that I really missed her and my godson, and that it wasn't fair to them that I took off so quickly. And so, since Luna will be preoccupied with Bella for the next couple of weeks most likely, leaving me as a third wheel, now might be the best time."

Jasper just looked at him. "Well, I guess I'll be missing you, then." He looked away, trying not to look too upset since this trip was obviously important to Harry. It still made him sad, though, since he'd only just started courting him and now they were going to be separated.

He bit his lip, and leaned forward to lightly touch his knee. "You know, it rains in England a lot, just like here."

The blonde looked up, confused. "I am aware of that."

"Good; so, how do you feel about coming with me? I'm sure that she'd love to meet you."

"W-What?"

Harry punched his arm. "Don't look so dopey, Jasper. All you have to do is say 'yes' and I won't kick your ass for abandoning me."

"Sorry, I didn't understand what you meant at first. I am flattered, but are you sure that I should accompany you? Won't it be a little overwhelming for your friend if the point of your visitation is to get her to relax?" Jasper hated that he felt the need to object at first, but he wouldn't go on a trip with Harry that was destined to go wrong.

"Yes, but she handles most bombs that I drop on her well, and I'm sure that she'll love you; you have nothing to be afraid of." He impulsively grazed his fingers across the Vampire's cheek. "But if you don't want to come, that's fine. I don't want to force you if you don't feel ready yet."

"It's not that…" Jasper took an unnecessary deep breath. "I just don't want to be some kind of embarrassment. From what I picked up in that book, Vampires aren't exactly respectable members of magical society."

"Yeah, well, respectable magical society can kiss my ass." Harry retorted. "I would never be ashamed of you for what you are, any more than I'd be ashamed of the color of your skin. You're just a different race; it's not something that people should be discriminated for since they can't control it."

He raised an eyebrow, relaxing. "Alright, I'll come along, but if this Hermione has a psychotic fit and tries to stake me with her stiletto or something equally heinous, I am blaming you."

Harry grinned. "I'll be sure to make sure that she's wearing kitten heels when she sees you to lower the danger."

"I'd appreciate that."

"Shut up." Harry teased, dropping his hand from his cheek and getting to his feet. "Well, since I'm not the kind of prick who just takes off with nothing but a note saying where I've gone, we are stuck here until Luna comes back from whatever she's doing with your sister and Bella. Did you want to stay here or go into the woods?"

A shockingly feral smile split Jasper's face. "We can go hunt some wolves."

"We can go _study _some wolves. If we kill them all without bothering to try and make nice with them, you won't be the only one in danger of being staked via stiletto." Harry nodded at him when Jasper blinked. "Oh yeah; no one in full mental capacity messes with Luna's research."

"I see. I'll keep that in mind."

"You do that." Harry dusted himself off and looked around the room. "It really is a pig sty in here right now. I'm sorry that your first impression of my intimate living quarters had to be so disgusting." He half-heartedly kicked a piece of Luna's underwear under the bed. It had little pigs with wings on it.

Jasper seemed to be trying very hard to laugh, but a choked sound escaped through his nose. His beau punched his arm and winced, rubbing his knuckles.

"Why do you have to be so rock-like? Ow…"

He caught his hand and kissed his knuckles. "Sorry. I'll try to soften up for you so that your abuse won't go both ways in the future."

"Ha! Don't mock me." Harry pretended to be hurt, but there was a pink tint to his face and he seemed to want Jasper to kiss his hand again. Jasper never was one to disappoint, so he raised his hand and kissed them once over, tilting his hand and kissing his cuticles as well.

"Me? Mock you? You have such a low opinion of my love for you." Jasper retorted smoothly, stepping neatly to the side when Harry aimed a kick at his shin. "Now, go get some shoes on and we'll see what we can do by way of observing the wolves."

"Alright." Harry left to get his shoes, stashed by the front door on their cheap plastic welcoming mat, and Jasper dug his own out from under the bed. As he laced them, he noticed a photograph tucked into the side of the bedside table, seemingly by accident. Reaching out, he tugged it loose gently and turned it over in his hand, feeling nosy, to see a dark-haired man with glasses laughing and embracing a red-haired woman. He jumped when he realized that they were moving, that the man was swinging his wife around in circles. They both looked a little bit like Harry, and it was with a start that he realized that he didn't know anything about Harry's family. Those people were either his parents or something similar.

"Jasper? Are you coming?" Harry called from the living room, and he jumped for the second time, startled out of his musing. He put it back where he'd found it.

"Yeah! I just lost one of my shoes for a minute here." He laughed, coming into the front room to find Harry neatening the pillows. "I think your trash was trying to swallow it alive."

"Oh, that's not even funny!" Harry twisted his lip. "My friend Ron once had a free House Elf living inside his stacks of crap that was stealing his clothes and eating the buttons off of them."

Jasper blinked. "Pardon me, but what is a 'House Elf'?"

"Oh, they're just helpful creatures that love to clean." Harry waved a hand. "Hermione had one of her crazes years back where she tried to convince them that they didn't have to clean, and a lot of them got very offended."

"Ah." Jasper nodded as if this made perfect sense. "Of course."

Harry held out his hand at around mid-thigh. "This is as tall as the tallest ones get. They've got eyes like tennis balls that look about ready to pop out, which is freaky as hell, and sharp teeth with pointy ears that stick out. I wouldn't mess with one if I saw one- they have a magic all their own."

"I see." He came closer, cautiously laying his hand against Harry's lower back and leading him out the door. "Let's not keep the wolves waiting."

Harry grinned. "I like your enthusiasm. I was beginning to think that you were just really reserved, but seeing you climb out of your shell like this is…exhilarating."

"Should I take that as a compliment or a dubious insult?"

He frowned. "Um, a little of both, but it is by no means a complaint. So far, I like everything you're showing me."

"I like you too." Jasper laughed softly and wrapped their arms together. "Do you mind?"

"Mind what?"

"Walking together, like this?" He jerked on his arm lightly, indicating the romantic meaning behind it.

"Nah. As long as I don't come home to bricks through my windows with 'fag' painted on them courtesy of small-minded neighbors and loving people, I don't mind public affection."

Jasper growled quietly. "If someone so much as looks at you wrong, please let me know right away."

"Oh? And what would you do to this unfortunate person?"

"I'd just slap them." Jasper shrugged, doing a flawless job of looking innocent despite the golden gleam in his eyes.

"But a slap from you would probably send them flying, breaking multiple bones." Harry pointed out shrewdly, refusing to be fooled by Jasper's clever evasion. "I see where you're going with this."

"So, you wouldn't object to me tearing them limb from limb?"

"Actually, I would. If people are violent to us, then going against the law and behaving the same way as them would just put us on their level and 'confirm' what they believed about us, namely that we're violent rapists or something."

Jasper sighed. "You're such a spoilsport. Don't rationalize my fury."

"Sorry; I'll try not to stomp on your metaphorical balls next time."

He choked on another laugh. "Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"

000

End chapter 22

Not that anybody gives a shit, but I used to nanny this awesome little kid also named Jasper. He was also blonde, but with cherub curls and baby blues instead of freaky vampire looks. That kid had quite the temper!


	23. Chapter 23

CHAPTER 23

Harry swallowed and looked at his feet, moving from one muddy puddle to the next. When he didn't reply for too long, Jasper started to get worried and started to walk slower, eventually forcing Harry to stop as well since their arms were still linked.

"Harry? Did I say something wrong?"

"It's not your fault." Harry whispered.

"What's not my fault? What did I say, honey?" He spared a second to wonder if he was moving too fast by using the pet name, but then he remembered that Harry had seen him without a shirt last night, so they might as well move onto this step as well. "Just tell me."

"I…I just wish that I'd had a chance to kiss my mother at all." He heaved a shuddery sigh, and finally looked up from the ground. There was an old sadness in his eyes that Jasper knew had no place in a face as young as his. "My parents were murdered when I was an infant, and I've always missed them horribly even though I barely remember anything about them. My life would have been so different if they'd lived."

"Who murdered them?" Jasper asked. Perhaps he shouldn't push him, since this was a tender spot. "Never mind, you don't have to tell me."

"It's alright. It was the same asshole who was responsible for the so many other people that I cared about dying- Tom Riddle. He's dead now, so I should get over my anger issues, but I still want to rip something apart every now and again." Real anger surged through his words, and the blonde started walking again, hoping that the movement would help him blow off some steam.

"Do you want to go punch something? We can find a gymnasium with a punching bag if you're really distressed about this." Jasper squeezed his arm carefully, not wanting to put too much pressure on it by accident. That would be a really nasty way to start off their second day together.

"No, thank you. I'll be alright; just please bear with me."

"I can do that." Jasper kissed the top of his head, glaring at a middle-aged haus-frau who was gaping at them from her mini van at the light. He was sorely tempted to make a rude gesture at her, but he decided against it. That would be immature and unprofessional.

Their walk to the woods was quiet enough until they passed by a group of teenagers that Harry recognized.

"Harry!" Jessica yelled, with a little more enthusiasm than he thought was called for, and came sprinting over. She splashed muddy water over her jeans, but she didn't seem to mind too much. "Hey! I didn't think that I'd see you again…" she trailed off when it processed that Jasper was hugging his arm possessively and giving her the evil eye. "Eh heh…hi, Jasper."

"Good morning." He replied politely, still shooting death from his eyes.

The rest of her friends made their way over, and Harry smiled at Angela. She adjusted her glasses, turning very pink when she saw that the two boys had their arms together.

"Hello, Harry. Jasper, I thought that you'd moved to San Francisco or something. What are you doing back in Forks?" She shyly addressed the Vampire, her eyes still snapping between the two of them, unspoken questions practically burning the air around her.

"I missed the woods." Jasper replied softly, his features relaxed but a slight tension in his shoulders giving away to Harry that he was uncomfortable with being focused on so keenly. "And I became acquainted with Harry and our friend Luna, so I decided to stay for a little longer and explore the woods with them."

"Oh." Jessica butted in. "if you guys needed a local guide, you could have just asked me! I don't know too much about the woods, but I do know where this great beach is."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Lovely. Do you mind if I take you up on that generous offer at some other time? Jasper and I were actually headed for the woods right now, so, see you guys later? It was cool to run into you again."

Jessica waved her hands, confusion behind her eyes. "Sure, no problem; but first, before you go, this my boyfriend, Mike." She pulled forward a brown-haired boy, whose eyes grew roughly to the size of dinner plates when he saw that they were now holding hands. "Say hi, honey!" she jogged his arm after he just stared at them for a couple of seconds, and he winced slightly. There was a faint snarl on his face when he snapped,

"Jess, who are these guys?" his eyes landed on Jasper. "Oh, hi, Jasper." Mike's face was white with fear despite the unnerved defiance trying to leak through in his body language. It was obvious that he, unlike his girlfriend, could see that they were homosexual and was biting his tongue against a rude comment.

He had to hide a laugh. It would seem that jasper intimidated most of the local kids, not that he was complaining. He couldn't imagine Jasper as much of a social butterfly anyway.

"I believe Jessica meant to introduce you to Harry, not me." Jasper smirked when Mike shifted in place, his eyes flicking onto the other brunette. Harry waved his free hand, a friendly smile on his face.

"It's nice to meet you, Mike!"

"Y-yeah, sure." He nodded, with his lips thin and his jaw set.

"We're leaving now." Jasper announced, trying to pull Harry away. Harry pretended to resist until Jasper shot him an exasperated look.

"I've been letting you lead all morning. I lead now!" Harry explained, tugging on his arm this time and leading him across the street, leaving a crowd of confused American youth behind them. "Good-bye, guys!" he called over his shoulder.

"Bye…" Jessica weakly replied, the dazed look in her eyes and her boyfriend's frantic whispering clearly saying that she was now aware that Harry wasn't interested in anything more than friendship.

Harry started laughing as soon as they were out of earshot, leaning on Jasper, weak with mirth. "Oh my god, that was too funny! Did you see her face?"

"Yeah." Jasper grinned. "Her boyfriend was feeling very hostile, though. Please watch out for him- he was afraid of me, but he didn't feel threatened by you. I am worried that he will try to attack you when I'm not around."

"You know what the solution is, then." Harry seemed unconcerned despite Jasper's warning, so he asked,

"Apparently not. What's the answer to this?"

Harry met his eyes and smiled sweetly. "Just never leave me alone. From this moment onwards, there is a metaphorical ball chain attached to your shapely ankle. Don't even think about trying to chew it off- I coated it with garlic juice."

Jasper burst out laughing, helplessly putting quite a bit of weight on Harry and toppling them onto the soiled concrete.

"You klutz!" Harry scolded, not sounding very upset at all despite the streak of mud across his cheekbone. "I'll bet you did that on purpose just to irritate me, mister tactical genius."

"Oh, have you begun making up titles for me now?" Jasper knocked their heads gently together. "Just remember, smart mouth, that I can always attack you with the secret weapon that is your greatest weakness- the cold shoulder."

Harry gasped. "You wouldn't!" he dramatically clenched the fabric of Jasper's sleeve in his hands. "Oh, please, say it isn't so!"

"I'm afraid it is. Come, let's get up and go into those woods before we both grow too old. My trousers are soaked and my underwear is getting very uncomfortable." Jasper both admonished and grumbled, sounding simultaneously like a child and a parent.

"I'll bet that I can make your underwear even more uncomfortable-" Harry started suggestively, only to get caught in a completely uncalled-for headlock.

"Now, that was inappropriate. I like being able to walk without too much discomfort, darling. Come along like a good pet, there you go…" Jasper crooned, petting his hair even as he hobble-walked them to the edge of the woods.

"Jerk!"

000

All three girls sat on the bench of Bella's truck, Alice between Bella and Luna.

"So, what are we shopping for, oh queen-of-the-mall?" Bella asked, fiddling with her radio in the hopes of getting a music channel that all three of them would like. So far the only types of music that Luna had responded to with more enthusiasm than a neutral head tilt were classical and some kind of weird foreign music that she couldn't remember hearing on the stations before.

"What would you like to shop for?" Alice responded, adjusting her hair in the rearview mirror. "Do you think I cut my hair too short this time? I like it spiky and manageable, but I think the girl took too much off this time."

Bella snorted. "Please! You of all people would have more than ample time to fiddle with your hair." She stopped at a red light and looked at it while they waited, turning Alice's head one way and the next by holding her chin. "I like it."

"Good. Your approval is important to me." She teased. "Hey, you still didn't answer my question. If you don't know or care, I'll just ask Luna…"

Their eyes wandered simultaneously to the outfit that the blonde had chosen at her house. When they'd stopped by, expecting to alert Harry of where they were going, they found him gone, and Alice had started giggling. It wasn't until they'd prodded her for information that she told them that she could smell Jasper in their bedroom.

Before Bella could have gotten to red-faced at the concept of Vampire-Human sex, Luna had stunned her speechless with a dangerously low-key, for her, outfit. It was still a bit unusual, though, since not many people wore navy sweaters large enough to be tents with olive shorts.

"I'm going to pretend that you're checking me out." Luna sing-songed, reaching out and expertly twisting the radio knob so that clear sound, previously thought to be impossible with Bella's car, rang out in it's confines; Bella didn't know how to describe the music at first other than 'old', but then she recognized a few strains and realized that this must be some kind of blues channel.

"Nice one." She complimented.

"Thank you. Sorry, but the static was getting to me." Luna fluttered a hand, and then tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear. "Now, what was that about shopping? Can we get books?"

Alice blinked. "I've never gone book shopping like that, like you would go to the mall…we should do it! And you guys can get coffee or something, and once we've gotten the book fix dealt with, we can move on to clothes." She punched her own palm. "Alright! How do you guys feel about our new plan?"

Bella pretended to be shocked. "I am appalled that you would even suggest something potentially mentally-stimulating in the same sentence as shopping!"

"Hey! You're mean, Bella. What about you, Luna?"

"As long as I can buy that one Nabokov book I've been wanting, I don't care what else we do." She shrugged. "We'll be together no matter where we go, and that's what matters to me."

"Aw…" Bella cooed, reaching around Alice to pat Luna's thigh. "God, you're so romantic!"

"It's the music; it's gone to my head." Luna replied blandly.

"So you'd like us to think." Alice nudged her and leaned down like they were in a conspiracy. "But we know better."

Luna smacked her hand away and giggled. "I'm innocent!"

000

"Hermione, if you spend anymore time writing new bills to our shitty excuse for a Ministry, I am going to scream." Ron stated, snatching Hermione's quill out of her busy fingers.

"Ron! Give it back! Come on, this is important."

"I can tell that your hands are sore just by looking at them." Ron waved her quill like a red flag in front of a bull and had a similar affect. He managed to dodge her charge, but she rallied and came around, making a grab for his stomach.

"Yes, my hands hurt with the toil that comes from doing important reformative work! If you or anybody else thought that I could just sit back on my ass and let a bunch of old men decide how to put our country back together again, then you were wrong!" she breathed hard, hands on hips. "And I intend to run for office, too."

Ron raised an eyebrow. "You can't run for office if you're in the hospital from exhaustion.

"Point taken; but this doesn't mean that you can rob me! Come on; give me my damn quill back!"

He managed to prevent her from working for a full three hours, the first of which was spent chasing him, and the subsequent two spent taking a nap on her sofa.

Ron couldn't have been prouder of himself.

000

End chapter 23


	24. Chapter 24

CHAPTER 24

They'd been walking through the forest, mostly silent but occasionally making a comment to each other, for about three hours before they stumbled upon the same clearing in which Harry had killed Laurent.

Harry stopped suddenly when he spied movement in one of the bushes across the clearing, and Jasper did the same. The Vampire was sniffing the air with a puzzled look on his face, and then he went absolutely still once he caught whatever scent it was that he was trying to catch.

"What is it?" Harry whispered, tugging on his sleeve.

"Wolf."

Jasper grabbed his hand and started to slowly back away, while a russet-colored muzzle emerged from the bushes, followed by the rest of its body. The wolf crept forward into the clearing, sniffing this way and that, slowly moving towards the section of grass that was charred from the magical fire that had burned Laurent's body yesterday.

"We need to get out of here, Harry. The creature is angry and a little frightened, neither of which are good news for us." He hissed, snatching Harry by his hip and moving them slowly into the cover of the trees so that their movements wouldn't startle the animal into noticing them. When Harry opened his mouth, Jasper covered it and gave him a look that conveyed all of his own unease. Harry didn't try to speak again, but climbed onto Jasper's back as indicated.

The Vampire began to climb the nearest tree, a thick pine, and climbed until the branches began to thicken and the trunk to grow too slim to support their weight. Harry shifted to his hip, keeping his arms around his neck, and peered down at the clearing from their new angle.

The wolf was still sniffing around, and he could hear it making strange whimpering sounds even from their distance, like it was communicating with something inside of its head.

"What's it doing?" Harry asked, keeping his voice low.

"God knows, but it looks to me like it is trying to find out what could have killed Laurent."

Harry's breath caught. "Oh no."

"Exactly. Now, aren't you happy that we relocated to this nice tree?" There was a hint of a smirk behind Jasper's question, and Harry laughed quietly.

"Alright, you're brilliant and the best strategist I have ever met. Are you happy now? Have I satisfied your ego's hunger for flattery?"

Jasper tightened his arm. "If I say yes, you'll stop talking, which would deprive me of your voice, so no; tell me more." He lowered his voice to a throaty purr that touched something primal inside of Harry; he shuddered slightly, well aware that Jasper could feel it and see just what that particular tone of voice had done to his emotions and his heart rate. His eyes widened a fraction. "None of that, Harry, not up here."

"What about down there, later?" Harry asked quietly, unwrapping one of his arms from Jasper's neck to brush his palm through his blonde hair.

"Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Jasper whispered back, not bothering to answer his question. "Aren't we supposed to be observing the wolf for your friend?"

Harry nestled his head into the curve of Jasper's neck. "Yes, but since we're up here together and so close-"

"Don't finish that sentence. I might forget to hold onto this tree, and then where would we be?" Jasper interrupted, grinning freely. "I thought that we were going to try and take things slower than this."

Harry raised his eyebrows. "Fine, you win this round, Jasper: we shall be prudish until one of us snaps and debauches the other. But don't think that you'll escape from me for long! I'll get you and your little dog too."

The blonde hesitated, wanting to retort, but his eyes were drawn to the wolf, which was now pacing in a slow circle around the meadow, sniffing shrubs and nosing the muddy ground. Thankfully, any evidence of either of their footprints had been wiped away by last night's rain, but who knew how powerful this wolf's nose was.

"What is it?" Harry asked when he'd been quiet too long, pressing an innocent kiss to his collarbone. The Vampire's skin was chilly from the air, and inhumanly smooth. It felt odd against his lips, but not unpleasantly so; it was almost like licking a reptile- unusual but nice somehow.

"I think it smelled something. See, it's stopped there directly where you were standing yesterday."

Indeed, the wolf had its nose directly against the mud, and was making excited snuffling noises.

"Damn it!" Harry hissed. "Should I kill it?"

"No, that would upset Luna." Jasper seemed to be having difficulty accepting his own statement, since his nostrils were flaring and his eyes dilating. He flexed his fingers against the bark of the tree, clearly wanting to fight.

"But this is an emergency!" Harry argued. "I mean, what if that thing tracks me home and eats me in my sleep or something? Then what? What's more important, me or the research?"

"That won't happen, Harry, because I'll be with you, remember?"

Harry chewed his lip. "True, but I'm still going to set up some wards around the house just in case. This isn't something to just brush off: that thing is huge! I'll bet it has teeth as long as my fingers."

He snickered. "You have quite the imagination, Harry. What kinds of monsters live under your bed?"

Harry, completely serious, answered, "Everyone I've ever let down or couldn't save from that monster. And sometimes my parents show up too, and blame me for getting them killed." He shrugged. "What about you?"

"I see those who I killed either directly or indirectly, lurking in the corners of my mind whenever I let my guard down, just waiting to spring upon my heart." Jasper answered shortly, upset with himself for leading the conversation inadvertently into such dangerous territory. "And lately, my ex-wife Alice has joined the band, and she screams at me for not being able to love her, even though I rationally know that my lack of romantic inclination towards her is the last thing on her mind."

Harry brightened and said, "Yeah, I think that she's been thinking about Bella a little more than you as of late."

"Bella Swan? Really?"

Harry nodded. "You bet. Not that I blame her, since Bella seems to be a nice enough person to have attracted Luna to her side, and she's pretty on top of it."

"True. I guess that it makes sense, now. Alice talked about her almost constantly, and she felt this strange jealousy when Edward and she were still together. It also explains the fury burning just under her smile when we left Forks because of what my brother suggested." He laughed quietly, watching the wolf leave the clearing in the same direction that it'd come. "It's gone."

"Huh?" Harry tilted his head at the sudden change of subject, turning to see where Jasper was looking. "I hope it's not going to go get its friends." He sighed. "At least now we know how big it is and that it is hunting the Vampires as your family said."

"Yes, and I will need to inform my family that the wolves are the same size as they were last time, possibly even bigger."

"You do that. Can you take me home first, though? And be sure to ask them if you can go to England with me."

"Of course."

000

"What are you reading?" Bella asked around a mouthful of muffin, craning her neck around her girlfriend's hands to try and catch a glimpse of the book's cover. There was a picture of a beetle devouring a butterfly gilded across the front, ringed by the words 'Ada or Ardor', by Vladimir Nabokov. "I've never heard of this book."

"Not too many people read it these days on a whim." Luna replied mistily, pausing in her perusal of the publishing page to steal a small nibble of Bella's muffin.

"Well, what's it about?" Bella urged, shifting her weight to lift the muffin out of the blonde's reach when her nibbling became over-zealous munching. "Hey! This thing was three bucks!"

"Really?" Luna asked incredulously, staring at the mediocre muffin. "What a rip-off."

"Tell me about it." Bella rolled her eyes. "But anyways, what about this book of yours? Have you read it before or something?"

Luna shrugged. "I read most of it, but had to stop because the library I was camping out in kicked me out for spilling juice on it. It's a slightly depressing love story, set in an alternate universe where Russia melded with America, and also a philosophical work on our perception of time. It ends well, though, despite everything."

"Oh? How does it end?"

"They both die." Luna stated dispassionately, weighing the book in her hands and seemingly unaware of Bella choking on her muffin. Alice joined them, rubbing Bella's neck until her hacking subsided. "I'm going to go purchase it. Would you like to come up with me?" Luna asked, finally looking up with a misty smile.

"S-sure." Bella fell into step with her, and Alice walked away to continue browsing the books for one that caught her fancy. "So…is it kind of like Romeo and Juliet or Wuthering Heights?"

"No, not at all." She replied, expertly maneuvering around an old man in a brown tweed suit. He adjusted his spectacles, staring after her. "It's about forbidden love of a completely different sort."

Bella waved her hand in a circle. "Such as…? Come on, you've got me curious!"

"It's about incest." Luna finally replied, cutting through the line without anyone noticing and sliding up to the first cash register. She did not greet the man at the register back, instead rifling through her handbag for her wallet. When he told her how much, she counted out the exact amount, waved away his attempts to bag her book, and tucked it into her purse.

"Incest?" Bella choked out, following her back to where they'd last seen Alice go. "isn't that kind of, you know, gross?"

Luna raised a slender blonde eyebrow. "Normally yes, incest is not something I would decide to read about, but I have always felt sympathy for those unfortunate enough to love those of close relation to themselves, and this book is beautifully written, just like everything else by Nabokov. If it were about an affair between a retarded child and a mallard duck, I would read it merely because anything can be art if done properly."

Bella gaped at her. "I…okay, then. Personally, I'll stay away from creepy love stories."

"And stick to those between suicidal infatuated teenagers such as Romeo and Juliet who staked their lives for nearly perfect strangers and died stupidly because of it?" Luna asked wryly. "To each their own, but I do recommend that you read _something _by Nabokov. Love in all of its forms ought to be admired; even it's most twisted, even if such extreme examples should be restrained for the good of those involved."

"I'll read something by this Nabokov guy, but it depends if he wrote anything not involving incest."

Luna snickered. "This is the only one that I know of that specifically features it. And I still think that you should read it- he presents it in an absolutely beautiful frame."

"What was that about incest?" Alice asked, re-joining them with a pair of books under her arm.

"Oh, Luna's book is about incest." Bella glared at Luna when she giggled at her. "What are you getting?"

"Well, gee, in comparison with that my choices seem kind of tame." Alice joked. "I've got 'The Choir Invisible' and some Moliere plays."

Bella nodded hesitantly. "I haven't read either of those. You guys are leaving me in the dust here."

"It's not intentional!" Alice defended herself. "Look at this as a chance to stretch yourself- I'll loan you anything you want."

"And so will I." Luna volunteered, moving toward the bench close to the door. "I'll wait over here while you buy that, Alice. Why don't you go with her, Bella?"

Bella nodded and went with the Vampire to stand in line.

As the day had gone on, Luna gradually let her animosity towards the Vampire fade. If Alice wanted to fight for Bella, that was fine, but in the end it would come down to whoever Bella loved more, and if it turned out that she loved Alice more than her, Luna was prepared to live with that.

She crossed her legs and opened up her book, soon getting lost in the exploits of its characters.

000

End chapter 24


	25. Chapter 25

CHAPTER 25

Harry fidgeted on the sofa before taking a deep breath. Before he could even open his mouth, Luna said, "Is this serious? Did somebody die?"

"No, nothing like that!" Harry waved a hand, laughing despite himself at the wide-eyed look on her face. "I just wanted to see if you'd mind me taking Jasper and visiting England briefly to make sure that Hermione hasn't done something insane like create world peace."

"Oh. Then, if that was all, why did you ask to see me privately and make me biscuits? And yes, by the way, you do have my royal permission to exit this country with your blonde lover." While he stuttered and ineloquently attempted to protest the use of the word 'lover', Luna ignored his amusing reaction and frowned, obviously confused over the formality of the conversation. "Was there something else?"

"Nothing comes to mind." Harry shrugged. "Oh, and Jasper made the biscuits, not me. He felt like cooking earlier today while we were waiting for you to come home, so he just made a ton of cookies. He even let me help, but I didn't do much so I don't know if I count."

Luna nodded, taking another one and popping the entire thing into her mouth at once, her jaw unhinging like a snake's to fit around the edges. She chewed with difficulty at first, and then swallowed. "They're really good. We should have him live in our closet and cook all of our meals for us. Of course, we'd have to attach a shackle or something to his ankle so that he couldn't run away, but still."

He snickered. "The thought did enter my mind. I think I ate at least ten before you got back."

"Ha! I've beat your record- this is number 13." She held up one shaped vaguely like a cloud and took a bite out of it. "Thirteen is unlucky, so I guess that I'll have to eat another one."

"Yeah, because eating another biscuit is such a chore." Harry rolled his eyes at her and took a gulp of his tea. It was cold now and bitter since he'd forgotten to buy extra sugar at the store earlier when Jasper was bullying him into buying some decent food. He made a face and set it back down, planning to use it to water the small pot of geraniums that Luna had acquired while out shopping with the girls.

He liked the flowers, with their healthy red blooms and spicy-smelling leaves just the right shade of green, the kind that seemed to scream 'life'. They added a cheery, lived-in look to their humble home, and the red blossoms made him think of Gryffindor house and happier times before all the nonsense of being grown-up ruined everything. Some days, he wished that he was eleven years old again and just starting Hogwarts, fresh-faced and naïve to the ways of the world.

With a start, he realized that Luna was still eating biscuits. "Luna, not that I want to tell you what to do, but if you keep eating those cookies, you're going to give yourself what is known in layman's terms as 'extremely fat ass'."

She sneered at him around what may or may not have been Biscuit #20. "You're just jealous that I'm eating your boyfriend's love food."

Harry blushed at her description, and admitted, "Maybe a little bit, but you're still going to get too fat to carry your ass off that couch if you keep this up. And speaking of Jasper, I'm going to go call him. I told him that I'd call him the next time I missed him, and after I'd gotten a straight answer out of you about England."

"I admire you for not calling him the second he stepped out of sight." Luna called after him as he disappeared into the kitchen, where their telephone was. She got up slowly, rubbing her belly with care and admiring the way it distended over her waistband. She made it as far as to the doorway of their bedroom, planning to go over Harry's report again and research wolves, before she backtracked and snatched the plate off of the coffee table. It would be a shame to let those biscuits sit there all alone and lonely. They'd be happier in her stomach.

000

Jasper paced in his bedroom, ignoring Rosalie's laughing eyes, his hand clenching and unclenching around his cell phone before it made a warning creak when he gripped too hard and he was forced to stuff it into his pocket.

"You're like a girl before the prom." Rosalie piped up, and he shot her a glare.

"Don't you dare start psyching me out, Rose, or I swear to god that I will slap you." his voice was tense with emotion, but the words lacked true heat. He knew that if he tried to swing at her now, even with her deceptively relaxed lounging position on his sofa, she would kick at his crotch, and she wouldn't miss. If there was one woman you never wanted to upset, it was Rosalie.

"Oh, you're getting violent already." She purred, giggling afterwards. "I like that; you hide your own emotions so much that I'm happy to see that Harry is getting you out of your shell."

"I like my shell." Jasper muttered. "It's nice in there, simpler than being out in the real world where there's always the danger of getting hurt or hurting someone else."

She raised an eyebrow. "Making mistakes and getting hurt are things that help us grow. Look back on everything 'bad' that has ever happened to you and think honestly about the long-term results of that. If you pay attention, you can see that everything happens for a reason. Of course, there are some things that are especially hard to see in this light, the kind of things that were either so stupid its funny to think about them or so upsetting that you want to scream every time they come up, but they'll make sense some day."

"Even if that day comes after you're dead?" he asked sarcastically. Her eyes and emotions were dead serious when she replied,

"Yes. I don't understand why I am not allowed to have children when I want them so badly, and I can't even adopt someone, but I trust that there's a reason for it, even if I never get to know what that reason is." She twirled a piece of her hair, looking at it speculatively. "How do you think I'd look with red hair?"

Jasper blinked at the sudden change of topic. Her mood remained the same, but there was a chilly veneer over it, the same veneer that always came up when she spoke about her desire for children. He knew that pushing her right now would be very foolish of him, so he answered, "I think that red would be too harsh against your skin tone, and it wouldn't look quite right with her face shape."

"Thanks for your opinion." She flashed him a bitter smile and stood up, angling her body to one side to stretch out her back. "I like knowing what you think about things, Jazz. We blondes need to stick together." She touched his chin fondly and sauntered out of his room, leaving him bemused and spinning philosophical circles in his head. He would have to try out her 'everything for a reason' theory on Harry and find out what the brunette thought of it.

On cue, his phone rang, and he had it open and against his ear before it even finished the second note. "Hello?"

There was a brief pause where Harry's breath caught. "Wow, you answer fast."

"I'm an impatient man."

"Ah." Harry sounded like he was trying not to laugh.

"Well? What did she say?" Jasper urged when several moments of quiet had gone by. Much to his irritation, Harry just laughed quietly and still didn't say anything. "Harry, I know that you are doing this simply to ruffle my temper, and it is not amusing."

"Sorry." He could hear a soft 'smacking' noise as Harry bit his lip. "I just wanted to hear how you sounded when you are impatient, so I can tell in the future. Luna said that it's fine with her, and she really likes the biscuits you made. I'd watch my back if I were you."

Jasper frowned, a neat 'v' forming between his eyebrows of such perfect symmetry that it would require tampering to reproduce it on a human face. "Why? Luna might be a little eccentric, but I'm sure that I could hold my own against her in a fight."

"Not what I meant. Luna has this thing about people proficient at domestic tasks- she likes to follow them around and try to catch them with a net."

His mouth fell open. Harry didn't sound like he was kidding… "Honestly? What do you think I should do? Hide?"

And then across the line he could hear the brunette starting to lose it.

"Ha-ha! I can't believe that you fell for that! You're a vampire!" Harry crowed. "Harry: Point 1, Jasper: Point 0."

He grumbled, knowing that he'd been had. "That wasn't fair. I wouldn't put it past her."

"Oh, I'll tell her you said that." Harry laughed again, and Jasper decided that it was worth getting teased if it meant that Harry would stay this cheerful. "But seriously, I would watch my back anyways since she might throw herself at your feet and beg you to make her food."

Jasper opened his mouth, and then hesitated. "Are you still kidding?"

"No." there was a rustling noise and his voice faded out of hearing range, and then Harry's voice came back. "Yep, she took the whole plate with her into the room, the piglet."

"It's nice to know that I'm appreciated." Jasper recovered his composure, running a hand through his hair, brushing it back out of his eyes. Maybe he should cut it before he went to meet Harry's almost-family?

"I'll always appreciate you." Harry said softly before clearing his throat. "Ahem, when is the best time for you to take off?"

Jasper grinned. "Take off what?"

He spluttered, sounding more than a little amused but obviously trying to hide it in order to keep up their false sham of respectability. "You know damn well what I meant! Personally, I can leave at the drop of a hat. I packed all of my clothes and some books, so whenever you can go, we can head off into the sunset arm-in-arm."

"Why not a sunrise?" Jasper suggested, walking over to his desk and penning a note to his family while he waited for the computer to load the airline website.

"What? Oh. Huh…" Harry was chewing his lip again, and Jasper's hand-writing went a little wobbly as he shuddered. This might get out of hand if they didn't watch it. Young emotions weren't something that should be handled lightly, and neither were the hormones of a teenaged boy. "I wonder why they use a sunset instead of a sunrise…it makes more sense to use the beginning of a new day rather than the end of an old one."

"You're preaching to the converted. On a different topic, the site I am looking at says that the next flight that I can book to England takes off at two in the morning tomorrow. Is that acceptable or would you rather wait for one at a less exotic time?" he finished his note, which gave an explanation for the trip and where the money for two plane tickets and a hotel had gone.

It wouldn't do to have Esme panic, after all. Carlisle tended to hold long grudges against people that upset his wife, even if they were just mild ones against his own children.

"Two o'clock is fine by me. I was planning to sleep on the plane anyway, and the cover of night can only help our situation." Harry chirped, his feet whispering across carpet. Springs creaked as he sank into the sofa. "How is your family?"

"They're fine." Jasper smiled, happy that Harry cared and was thoughtful enough to ask. "And although I'm a little bit nervous, I am excited to meet yours."

"Aw, thanks for not freaking on me about it, too." Harry answered. "Okay, weird question, but what do you do with that extra free time you have all night? Read? Watch movie marathons of 'I Love Lucy'?"

Jasper chuckled. "Well, sometimes, but the more exciting nights are when Emmett likes to play long wars against me and sometimes Edward when he's not moping. We compete in video games and chess, and I think that we even had a wrestling competition once but then one of us got too excited a few limbs went flying…"

000

Since Alice was heading back to her family and Luna had work to do, Bella was once again alone. This time, though, she didn't think about Jacob or Edward. Instead, she took one of her new books and some essentials in case she got lost and needed to survive, heading out the door for the woods.

She was going to find her meadow today before it got too dark.

Her resolve wasn't as strong several fruitless hours of searching later, so she sat down on a mossy boulder and pulled out her book, leaning forward so that the plastic of her hood would protect the book from any random droplets of rain that might try and ruin it. She was well buried into its pages when she heard a twig snap behind her.

At first she brushed it off, since things like that did happen by themselves in the woods- if a tree fell down in the woods with nobody around to hear it, it would still make a sound. The hair steadily rising on her arms told her that this was no natural event, however, so she carefully folded down the corner of her book to mark her spot and closed it, putting it away.

Her breathing was getting uneven now, but she turned her head slowly around anyway, angling her body to make this possible since she wasn't an owl and capable of turning her head completely around.

Peeking at her from behind a tree was Jacob, or at least she was pretty sure that it was him.

"Um, hi." She offered when he didn't say anything. All she could see around the tree's thick trunk was his head, and he was blushing. "You don't have to stand over there spying on me. I already know you're here- if you want to sit with me you can."

He blushed brighter. "I, uh, can't come over there. Sorry. I shouldn't be here."

Anger flared in her chest and she stood up, hands balled into fists at her sides like a toddler. "Oh really? Why not? Will your little cult leader get you in trouble if you talk to me or something?"

He flinched, and she immediately regretted saying that so harshly. "Sorry, Jake, that was mean. Why?"

"I can't tell you."

Her eyes narrowed, and the anger came back, though there was less of it this time. He just wasn't someone that you could stay angry with, and he could have done any number of crimes without getting in trouble with a face like his. "Is it a club secret or something retarded like that?"

"No! No, no, no." he looked down, and retreated further around the tree when she tried to come closer. "It's not a secret, it's just embarrassing."

She rolled her eyes. "What, are you naked or something?"

Even his ears turned red when she said that and he stuttered out something too fast for her to understand it. She suddenly realized what she'd just said, and tied his reactions to it. "Holy shit, you _are _naked!"

He groaned, raising a bare arm to rub at his face. "Yes…"

"Do I even want to know?"

"Not really. Could I…could I borrow your coat or something to tie around my hips?" he looked like he would give anything for a mud hole to swallow him up right then, and she could tell that he was shifting from foot to foot.

A teasing grin spread across her mouth. She felt a lot more secure teasing him now that she knew she wasn't single and therefore available to him. "I'll only give it to you if you tell me why you've been avoiding me."

000

End chapter 25

Sorry I was gone. I wasn't home, so no updates.


	26. Chapter 26

CHAPTER 26

Jacob's mouth fell open in shock. "Bella Swan!"

She shrugged, grinning. "Hey, I'm not the naked one here. I kind of like taking advantage of you like this- think of it as payback for you being such a jerk and giving me the cold shoulder without telling me why."

He sighed. "I wasn't trying to give you the cold shoulder; its just not a good idea for us to be friends."

"You know, Edward said something similar to me before we started dating, so I can tell you flat out that I don't believe a word of that." Bella said sternly. "And you'd better spill before I chase you out of there with my camera."

"You wouldn't dare!" he pointed a finger at her and wagged it. "Your daddy raised you better than that."

"Oh really? I made some new friends and they're not big in the morals section, so I wouldn't make assumptions about what I am capable of if I were you." she took off her coat and swung it from side to side temptingly. "Here kitty, kitty…all you have to do is tell me one little thing, Jake."

He rested his forehead against the bark, and she glimpsed one broad shoulder heave as he sighed. "I changed, and I don't want to hurt you. I miss you a lot, and I really wish that us being friends wasn't so dangerous. You were my _best _friend, and I still like to think of you as such even though we're not talking."

"Here's a crazy idea- how about we say that, for argument's sake that I don't care how dangerous you are since I still care about you as a person. Then, in this alternate universe, would you stop being such an idiot and be my friend again?"

"No, I would stay an idiot because whether you're scared of me or not has nothing to do with the situation or the facts themselves. I'd be dangerous no matter how you felt about it." He snatched suddenly for the coat, and his fingers brushed the zipper, just missing it. He groaned. "Look, if you don't want to give me the coat, then can you turn around so I can walk home without flashing you everything I've got?"

"Not a chance, pal." Bella spat the last word, planting her feet on the ground and her eyes on what she could see of him. "Now, what makes you dangerous? I can see that you beefed up some more, but I can handle strength. Did you piss somebody off? Are you on drugs? Come on, talk to me!"

"You have no idea how badly I have wanted to do just that these past months." He whispered. Internally, Bella groaned. With purpose, she strode closer to the tree, making him squeak with alarm and no doubt cover the jewels.

"New deal: for every five seconds that you don't talk, I'm taking a step closer. This includes running, and I wasn't kidding about the camera." She smiled sweetly. "So, Jake, are you going to take the easy way or the hard way?"

He looked pleadingly at her and then sighed yet again. "Okay, I could kill you if I stop paying attention for a couple of seconds, and because of this, it was smarter for me to cut our relationship off before I did something that would give me nightmares for the rest of my life. Satisfied?"

"Not really, no." She chewed her lip, reviewing everything she knew about Jacob and everything he'd ever said to her. Her mind brought their first private chat to mind, the one that'd given the key to the Cullens' secret. Except now, as she reviewed it, entirely different things stood out, and before she knew it, she was thinking about all of the mysterious 'giant wolf' sightings lately. There was no way…if she was wrong; she could just pretend that she'd been kidding. Her curiosity was worth the small sacrifice of pride. "Do you turn into a giant wolf or something?"

"W-what…?! How did you know?" He shrieked, sounding so shocked that he started moving closer before he caught himself and shrank back behind his modesty screen. "Who told you?"

Bella was unable to answer, her neurons firing as brilliantly as fireworks. Well, this certainly cleared some things up.

She wondered if Harry and Luna knew about this, what with all the time they spent in the woods.

000

His legs were wobbly from the airplane, and he was grateful for Jasper's arm casually draped around his shoulders, even though the blonde jokingly led them into walls and against corners every time Harry drifted closer to the tempting land of sleep. He wanted a nap badly.

"It's nice to be in England again." Jasper said wistfully, gazing around them at the grimy linoleum floors and tatty waiting chairs. He took a deep breath of humanity, and smiled. He hadn't felt this alive, or nervous, since he'd been human.

Harry just grunted and mumbled a nasty word when he stubbed his toe.

They were both grateful to be in the hotel room after making it out of the airport and through a taxi ride. Harry flopped face-first on the bed, pushing off his sneakers with his toes while Jasper settled elegantly in the desk chair and unlaced his own.

The brunette groaned a little bit, rolled over, and crawled up to tuck himself under the covers, still dressed. "I hate flying in planes…" He whined.

"Oh, I can tell." Jasper teased, stripping away layers of clothes until he was left in his trousers, minus the belt and its sharp buckle, and a comfortable undershirt. "Is there room for me in there? Your whining seems to be taking up a lot of space."

Harry swatted at him like he was a fly and rolled petulantly when Jasper leaned over to kiss him. He stared at the back of his skull, at the tendons of his neck and the hint of back musculature visible, and stretched out his hand so that it hovered an inch over the brunette's bony shoulder. He slowly lowered it, and tentatively massaged circles into the bone there.

He was rewarded by Harry's breathing slowing down further, and the privilege of seeing his face. Harry sleepily pecked him between the eyes before latching onto his arm and pulling him down so that he was practically forced to spoon him.

"Comfy?" Harry mumbled, not sounding upset in the slightest when Jasper kissed his neck. "Let me know if I'm about to pull your arm out of its socket or anything."

Jasper chuckled and settled down, his face pressed against the nape of Harry's neck with his black hair between their skins so that he wouldn't get him too cold. "I doubt you could manage it, little grasshopper."

Harry snorted. "I'm not even going to ask."

"Good, because I don't want to bicker right now either; goodnight, grasshopper." Jasper whispered back, kissing his neck one last time before settling down into that place between sleeping and waking that was as close to real rest that a Vampire could get.

Harry lay awake for nearly an hour after that, nervous about seeing his family again. Would they be angry at him now? Would they blame him for what she did?

000

Her desk was going to break under this pressure, she was sure, and if she'd been less distracted she would have done something about it. There was a forest of parchment around her, some of the stacks even brushing against the ceiling and most of them taller than her.

Thanks to all of those bills that she proposed to what was left of their government, a mere newspaper scrap in size compared to its previous encyclopedia collection, she was elected as…

Well, they didn't have a title for her yet, but her job was to sort everything and label it so that it could be moved to appropriate locations, also chosen by her, by the free house elves that she'd attracted.

They were an eager group of five, and one of them, Dippy, had been contacting her cousins in other locations and coaxing them to come over and help rebuild the building itself with them. If Hermione had known that house elves could be so on fire for a cause if encouraged properly, she never would have questioned their role as helpers in the world.

She finished copying the half-burnt stack of reports in her hands onto the new fire-resistant paper the Ministry was using and neatly added it to the proper stack. One of them appeared in the room while she was moving it to the section of her office devoted to agricultural growth around the globe, startling her into dropping it. The papers flew around like snow, losing their order completely and scattering enough parchment dust to make her sneeze violently.

"Oh, dash it all!" she groaned, pulling her knees to her chest, heedless of the view anyone entering her office would have up her skirt.

"Cheery is so sorry!" Cheery scooted around the biggest stack and delicately laid his hand on Hermione's shaking shoulder. She sobbed dryly, and then sniffled.

There was no point fighting the waterworks now- Ron told her that when you got stressed, you needed to let your emotions out or else you'd go crazy. Hermione certainly felt crazy right now, but she also knew that she was the one person in the entire building who couldn't afford to stop working. Everyone else was relying on her to restore their information, and the house elves only listened to her, so she spent her evenings plotting out with Nosey, their leader, what they would be doing the next day. Around her the Ministry was steadily growing back into a semblance of order, but her skeleton would probably be found buried in the center of the foundations, an offering to the gods of labor.

Fat salty tears that stung her lip where she'd bit it rolled down her cheeks in torrents, and she found it difficult to breathe around them. Cheery fretted, wringing his hands and bouncing from foot to foot before dashing off for no reason.

She started to cry harder now that she was alone; her throat aching like she'd inhaled toxic smoke.

Cheery reappeared, an assortment of hankies in his hands and followed by several of the office girls she was friendly with (meaning that she smiled at them when she had the time).

One of them, named Hester and a Muggle born like her, ventured all the way into her office, her eyes getting wider and wider as she took in the amount of work both being done by Hermione and the larger amount that she hadn't done yet.

She knelt next to her on the carpet. The carpet was once a nice shade of red with bands of bronze woven through it, but now it was white from bits of parchment. Hester sneezed and accepted the pile of hankies from Cheery.

"You can leave now, Cheery. I'll take care of her." Cheery nodded and popped out of the room, leaving them to work out their human issues. "Sophie, would you go get her some nice tea? Put lots of sugar in it- she needs something sweet in her life."

Sophie smiled at Hermione before dashing off to the card table set up in the front of every 'office wing' where they kept tea and coffee for the workers.

"What should I do?" Olivia asked, shuffling from foot to foot.

Hester hugged Hermione close to her side, offering her a hankie, which was accepted gratefully. "Um, did you want to go see what can be done about getting some of those Muggle pastries?"

"Good idea!" Olivia also left, leaving Hermione to reluctantly show weakness and snuggle closer to Hester.

"Thanks. I'm sorry that I'm such a mess."

Hester snorted. "Honey, you deserve to take five years of mental health days, so don't apologize to me for having a little cry. If it's not too rude of me, can I ask what brought this on?" she rubbed her back, nuzzling her hair when Hermione scooted closer.

"I just…I just dropped a stack of work that I've spent parts of the last week assembling, and I know that it will take even longer to fix it." Hermione looked at her hands, and clenched them around her knees. "Some days I feel like, for every stack I finish, there are five more waiting."

Hester thought about this carefully, using one hand to adjust the pens stuck in her messy bun. The quill system hadn't lasted very long- they were even using notepads these days. "Can you train an assistant? This is…" she looked around at the forest and shuddered. "far too huge of a burden for just one person."

"I agree that this is too much for just me, but I was put in charge of everything because I'm the only one who can do the job." She blew her nose on a hankie patterned with little chessmen and smiled wanly as she thought of Ron, and subsequently all of her other friends. "Actually, I do know two other people that have the knowledge base to deal with this, but they're on a sabbatical right now." She chewed her lip, shattering the scab just forming over her last bite "Maybe when they come back we can work something out?"

"Well, who are they?" Hester asked, folding her legs under herself and helping Hermione re-pin her hair up.

"Harry Potter and Luna Lovegood, but they're in…" maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to be specific. "Somewhere, researching and just working off the stress that built up during the war."

Hester smiled as Sophie sidled in with three teas precariously balanced in her hands, and then she turned back to Hermione. "If they needed to relax, then why aren't you?"

"I have a complex. I can't just leave a problem alone, especially one as important as this one." She rolled over onto her back, knees still braced up. "I would be even more stressed out if I knew that there was something I could help out with and wasn't."

"Oh." Hester handed her a tea and pastry from Olivia. "That sucks."

Hermione nodded sadly. "Yeah, it does."

000

"How can you eat that?" Jasper demanded, staring with disgust at the disposable paper 'basket' containing what Harry told him were fish and chips. Instead of answering, Harry just stuffed another chip into his mouth and held out his hand. With a sigh, Jasper gave him another ketchup packet.

"Harry, I can smell your blood getting greasier."

Harry just shrugged, now taking a bite of cod. "I don't care."

"You will when you get diabetes and too fat to do anything fun." Jasper lectured, trying to snatch away him food for the millionth time. Harry ducked down, turning his back so he could protect his prize with his body.

"You might be right, babes, but I am young and I can work it off."

Jasper smirked. "Fat chance."

Harry, now that he was finished stuffing his face, whirled around and chucked the basket at Jasper's face so unexpectedly that the blonde forgot to dodge. Ketchup smeared across his face and some got on his collar, and the basket landed face-down on his white sneakers.

He gaped.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "You got something to say now, pretty boy?"

"Yes, actually." He recovered, still a little surprised that Harry didn't miss when he threw it at him. "You can enjoy domesticating yourself by washing my clothes. Oh, and you're buying me new shoes."

Instead of getting riled up like he was supposed to, Harry shrugged again. "No problem. What kind of shoes are those?"

Jasper looked down. "Um, Nikes."

"Okay, we'll find the nearest Nikes store. Do you mind if I just buy you a new shirt instead of trying to clean that one? Otherwise you'll be standing half-naked in a Laundromat."

"Wait a second." Jasper protested as harry started dragging him off towards the nearest row of shops. "How are we paying for this?"

"I have money, lots, in fact."

"From what?" Jasper demanded.

"My parents, my godfather, and I got paid by a couple of other countries that were very grateful to me for saving the world." Harry rattled off casually before licking some salt off of his thumb.

"Oh." Jasper didn't protest again as Harry led them to the stores. It would seem that their surprise visit to Hermione was going to be a couple of hours later than planned.

000

End chapter 26

Sorry it was late!


	27. Chapter 27

A/N: for those of you who love to get really into a story, I have thought of some decent theme music for this story: 'Elephant Gun' by Beirut. I don't know about the lyrics, but the general feel of the song is what I'm going for with this story.

CHAPTER 27

"Hey, you can't just walk in here-" A random wizard protested when Harry came waltzing through what was left of the elevator system. His mouth clicked shut when he recognized him, however, and he rushed over. "Oh my god, you're Harry Potter!"

"Yeah, but more importantly, can you tell me where to find Hermione Granger?" harry waved away the man's attempts to shake his hand while smoothly accepting the pen and paper shoved against his chest. He autographed it clumsily and then handed it back, unnerved at the fire in the man's eyes. He could feel Jasper stiffening beside him, obviously unhappy about the proximity of the other wizard.

"She's through that door there and up two flights of steps. Watch the landing, though, since it's not too solid. The House Elves have been working on it, but since they keep shifting the walls trying to repair everything else, it's still unreliable."

Harry nodded, smiling his thanks. "I'll keep that in mind. Have a nice day!"

"You too, Mr. Potter!" he replied breathlessly, watching them go. He wondered who the man in the long hooded coat was but didn't that it was his place to ask

Harry turned and waved briefly before the hooded man grabbed his arm and rushed him through the door and up the steps. Instead of trying to walk across the landing, Jasper grabbed him around the stomach and leapt across onto the next flight of stairs.

"That was fun." Harry remarked blandly, patting Jasper's chest to remind him to let go. Jasper didn't comply, lowering his grip so that it rested easily around his hips.

They passed a table with a tea and coffee set arranged on it. "Oh, I want a tea…" Harry whined, looking back over his shoulder with longing as they left it behind.

Jasper stopped. "We can go back and get one."

"No, its for the workers. It wouldn't be right for me to take something meant for those who work here, especially since there aren't many of them and they must work very hard."

"Whatever you say." Jasper replied breezily, starting to walk again. They passed a few witches and wizards on their way, most of whom sent Harry looks of awe or disbelief. A low hiss of whispers began to spread out behind them like a wave, gaining volume with every step her took.

"You seem to be awfully popular." Jasper noted, helping Harry peek into the offices they passed, looking for one containing a girl of the description he gave her.

Reaching the end of the hall, he collided with a petite brunette in a Muggle skirt suit.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry!" She brushed him down without meeting his eyes. "I hope you aren't hurt. I wasn't looking-" her hands brushed his bare hand, and she gasped, her head snapping up. "Vamp-"

Harry's hand shot out and covered her mouth. "I wouldn't finish that, sweetheart. This man is my associate and I would be very unhappy if his physical well-being was threatened in any way. You might be a lady, but I don't have any qualms about removing you if you prove to be more difficult than you're worth." He lowered his hand when he was sure that she wouldn't try and scream again. A pleasant smile now played across his lips. "Now, can you tell me which office belongs to Hermione Granger?"

"This one! I'm in here!" A voice that'd been more familiar to him than his own for the majority of his life called from inside the office. He couldn't see very far into it over the girl's shoulder due to the cartoonish amount of parchment stacked on everything, but he didn't need to.

"Hermione, guess who this is?" He teased, shifting around the stacks with care so as not to disturb them. Jasper followed him silently, adjusting the hood of his coat.

He rounded a stack, and her mouth fell open. Her expression was so comical that he almost fell over from laughter. Jasper tightened his grip around him to hold him steady, and Harry's mirth gave Hermione the time she needed to get her wits back together and think of a come-back.

"Someone I ought to slap for abandoning me?" Hermione teased right back, standing up along with two other girls. There were pastry crumbs on her blouse, and her hair was bushier than it'd been since 3rd year when she'd been using a time turner. Her nerves were visibly frazzled, and her eyes were red and puffy from crying.

"No offense, Hermione, but you look like hell. What have they been doing to you?" Harry demanded, stepping away from Jasper and hugging her tightly. Her crumbs rubbed off onto him, no doubt leaving grease spots on his shirt, but he didn't complain. "Have you been sleeping at all?"

"Nope!" She chirped. "There's no time."

"Let me guess- they've got you doing the core of work since you're the only one who can and you are stuck running like a hamster in a wheel trying to get it all done because you don't even have time to train an intern."

"Dead on as always." She laughed bitterly. "I really don't mind most of the time, though. I'm happy to have a part in putting our country back together."

He looked around at the absolute mountains of work. "I can't just take you away from all of this to selfishly force you to spend time with me, can I?"

She shook her head. "Not unless you've got the manliness to help me finish this room, which would take me roughly a week working alone."

"Foolish girl, don't you know that I can't just back down from a challenge like that?" He lightly squeezed her shoulders, looking around her hair at the two girls calmly sipping their teas. "How rude of me; are you going to introduce me to your friends?"

Hermione swiped some hair out of her eyes, which brought Jasper into her line of sight. "I will if you do."

"Fair enough. This is my friend, Jasper. Jasper, meet Hermione Granger, the world's most valuable workaholic."

He shook her hand, and she shivered from his cold grip. "It's nice to meet you, Jasper. I hope that I can see you without the hood sometime. Harry, these are Hester and Sophie. The girl I heard you terrorizing at the door is Olivia."

"Ah. It's a pleasure, ladies." He nodded to them.

"Hi there." One of them greeted in a huskier tone than was necessary and the other one rolled her eyes, reaching into a paper bag and pulling out a pastry.

"Do you guys want any pastry? Olivia bought tons, way more than we can eat without feeling some guilt for how much lard we're pumping into our arses." She held the bag out and shook it welcomingly. "Come on, don't be shy."

"I never could leave damsels in distress to their own despair, even if that distress is an over-abundance of pastry." Harry grinned and reached into the bag that Hester held out. "You have Danishes! Yu-um."

Jasper snickered behind him, and Harry turned his head to stick his tongue out.

"'Yum'? What are you, five years old?" Jasper mocked, and Harry waved his pastry threateningly.

"I'd watch my mouth if I were you. I am armed and dangerous. You should know by now that I have no scruples about rubbing this in your hair." He stuffed the rest of it into his mouth all at once, destroying the validity of his threat. Once he chewed and swallowed, he addressed Hermione. "Tell me what you want me to start with. The sooner I start working, the sooner I can treat you to dinner and maybe even a film or three."

"Oh, like a date?" She teased, laughing. "You can get started on that stack over there. It's a collection of everything that could be found about the old sanitation systems, complete with old blueprints. Since those buildings have been destroyed in various terrorist attacks during the oh-so-lovely war, people have just been dumping their waste in our water sources. You need to write some laws on burning garbage and keeping our natural resources pure, and simultaneously plan a new sewage system. Have your friend help you if he can."

Harry nodded slowly, trying to process everything that she'd said. He grabbed the first half of the stack and indicated for Jasper to get the second part. "We're going to move ourselves into a corner so we're not in your way." He explained.

"Good idea." She turned away from him to talk to her friends. "Thank you so much for helping me relax, girls, but I really need to start working again."

"Okay, but we'll be coming in every couple of hours to check on you or get you anything else you might need. Don't hesitate to call us." Hester gave her a hug and then left, Sophie following.

When they were gone, Hermione plopped down at her desk and started in on a different stack from the one that she'd spilled across the floor. She would deal with that later, when she wasn't so upset about it.

000

"Thank god you have schooling in Architecture." Harry smiled at Jasper, looking over his shoulder at the new designs he'd drawn up, based loosely on the previous plans but much improved. "Those look fantastic."

"I'm just happy to be of help." Jasper murmured. "I would feel horrible if all I could do was sit here and watch you work."

Harry stroked his cheek with a finger, smiling. "Okay, sweet-talker, let's go tackle another stack."

Hermione's head whipped around when Harry came up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. "Yeah? Did you guys need new pens or something?"

"No, we just finished that stack you gave us. Consider the sanitation system a done deal." Harry proudly flashed the blue prints and thick stapled stack of laws he'd written up. "What do you want us to do next? If you have anything else with Architecture requirements, we can just give that to Jasper here. He's quite the whiz."

Her mouth opened and closed mutely a couple of times before she just nodded and pointed at a _very _tall stack. "Those are the plans for the Ministry itself. They need to be revised, but you'll need to talk to the House Elves before you do anything since they've put in a lot of temporary changes. The foundations are getting fragile, as well."

"Okay." Harry turned to Jasper, looking between him and the top of the stack. "Um, would you mind giving me a lift?"

"Not at all." Jasper bent his knees and held out his hands, cupped into the shape of a foothold. "Be careful. We don't want to knock anything over."

"Good point." Harry stepped onto his palm, steadying himself against Jasper's shoulder. The blonde smiled at him from under his hood and then gently rose into a full standing position. Harry grabbed as big of a stack as he could carry off of the top and let himself be lowered again. "You're good at that."

"Thank you."

000

When Jacob opened the door to his house, Billy looked up from his baseball game to greet him, but the words froze on his lips, unspoken, when he saw who was standing slightly behind his son.

His son was also wearing a feminine rain coat a loin cloth.

At last he sighed and shook his head, turning back to the game. "Do I even want to know what you've gotten yourself into this time?" He grumbled.

"Um, probably not." Jacob replied, his voice cracking with nervousness. "Can…can Bella stay for dinner?"

Billy shrugged. "Sure, if that's what you want."

"Thanks, Billy." Bella smiled at him, following Jacob out of there and into his room.

"Hey, you can't just follow me like this!" Jacob hissed when she sat down on his bed, looking around her with interest. She wondered how he fit on the bed, and whether or not he was comfortable in such a small room.

"Why not?" She asked innocently.

"Because I need to get changed!"

Bella reclined on his bed and shrugged. "So get changed. Don't let me stop you, big bad wolf."

He flushed. "I don't want to do that with you in here!"

She sighed. "Okay, I won't look." She rolled over and pressed her face into the pillow. "I promise you that I'm not looking. Now, get dressed so that we can have that long talk you promised me."

The sounds of rustling clothing reached her ears, and then Jacob said, "I never promised to have a talk with you."

"Then why the fuck am I at your house?"

"Um, since when do you say 'fuck'?" he asked almost timidly, sitting on the edge of the bed and poking her to let her know that he was done covering himself.

"Since now." She sat up, folding her legs under herself and looking at him appraisingly. "You sprouted up again. Is it the wolf genes?"

"Yeah." He wriggled uncomfortably when she leaned in close and looked at him from head to toe.

"I can't believe that it took me this long to figure it out. You were pretty obvious."

"I was not!" he protested.

"Nonsense. You practically shoved it in my face." She waved away his excuses. "So, has anything else interesting happened to you lately? Did you get a girlfriend yet? I saw some really pretty girls on the way here checking you out."

"I…uh, no, I'm not seeing anyone."

She nodded, processing that. Hopefully he wasn't still nursing a crush on her.

He looked up from his lap, blinking like an owl and wondering if her question had been a hint of some kind. Hope swelled in his chest, and he asked before you could think, "I thought you were still obsessed with you-know-who?"

"Edward? Please. He's the last person I want to be with now."

"Really? What changed?" He scooted closer, making the bed creak loudly. Bella giggled.

"I just…well, I had an epiphany of sorts." She raised one shoulder and dropped it listlessly. "I realized how twisted our relationship had been, and also that I was wasting the best years of my life mooning after him." She laid her hand on his forearm, smiling. "And I realized how much you gave me by convincing me to live a little again. if you hadn't done a disappearing act, though, I probably never would have realized how much you did for me and how unfair it was of me to lead you on and lean on you without giving anything back."

"Bella-"

"No, I mean it, Jacob. I'm glad we're friends again, but this time I am going to do a better job of being _your _friend, and someone that _you _can lean on when you need to." She squeezed his arm and then retracted her hand. "I really missed you."

He smiled, and then took a deep breath. "Please don't be mad, but can I ask you something?"

"Sure. What's on your mind?"

"If…" he bit his lip. "If Edward isn't in the way anymore, then, um, would you go out with me?"

She blinked, and then smiled sadly. "Oh, Jake, you know I don't feel the same way. Maybe we should back off if this is going to hurt you."

He swallowed harshly. "No, that's okay. I'm sorry I asked."

"It's not that there's anything wrong with you." she reassured, wanting to touch him but deciding that that would do more harm than good. "I'm seeing someone."

"What?" He looked up, eyes wide. "Since when? And who is it? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Whoa, one question at a time, Jake; I just met them a few days ago formally, but we really hit it off, and I wanted to get myself back into the dating game and try something new at the same time. I didn't tell you because I didn't have a chance to yet. I wanted to wait until the right moment."

"Do I know him? Is he someone from your school?"

Bella shook her head. "Nah, she's from England-"

"Wait." He held up a hand, inches from her face. "Did you just say 'she'?" he asked slowly and clearly, starting to shake a little bit.

She cringed inside. If he didn't take this well, he might rip her head off or something. "Yeah, I did. But I promise I'll introduce you!"

"Hold up- I haven't wrapped my mind around this yet. Are you trying to tell me that you're a _lesbian?"_

000

End chapter 27

I know my updates have been erratic lately, but there's nothing I can do about it.


	28. Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28

She gave him a strained smile and nodded stiffly, not quite able ti muster up the courage to say out loud the words that she knew would permanently crush his dreams of a relationship with her.

"Holy shit…" He whispered, staring at her dumbfounded. "I never would have seen that one coming."

"I just prefer women now, Jake. That's the only thing that's changed, I swear! I'm still the same person." She touched his knee lightly. "Do you still want to be friends, or do you need space to think about this? I know that this changes a lot of our dynamic-"

"No, I'll be okay. I don't think that it's sunk in yet; hearing that you were actually over Edward was such a huge shock, and now you tell me this. Hey, distract me so I don't freak out. What's her name and what does she look like? Is she hot?" He asked, an edge of hysteria undulating beneath his words. "I'll bet she's really pretty, like you."

Bella laughed and punched his leg, hiding her own awkwardness. If he needed her to talk, then she could do that much for him. "Yeah, she's gorgeous, but not in a supermodel way. Have you ever seen those paintings from the Pre-Raphaelite era?"

He looked at her blankly. "Bella, are you seriously asking _me _about _art?_ I work with cars and engine grease, not a paintbrush and oil paint."

"Oh, right, sorry. Anyways, like I was saying, she looks almost like a fairy or something. She's really smart, too, although its kind of hard to tell sometimes since she likes to daydream a lot."

"Awesome." He nodded. "You still haven't told me the important stuff, like her name and hair color and stuff like that."

"She's blonde, with kind of bluish eyes. Her name's Luna Lovegood."

Jacob's eyes bugged out. "I think I know that girl!"

"Whoa, get the fuck out!" Bella laughed. "Honestly?"

"Yeah, is she kind of short and English, with long straggly blonde hair?"

"Well, I wouldn't call her hair straggly, but yeah. And I already told you that she was from England! How do you know her?" She cocked her head, her mind moving a mile a minute trying to figure this out. Harry and Luna hadn't been in Forks for that long, had they? Surely she would have known if they had been socializing with the other young people around here, right?

"I don't 'know her know her', but I did meet her and this guy named Harry at a McDonald's. My friends are going to be crushed when I tell them that not only are you off the market, but so is she. Luna made quite the impression on Quil; he was actually lurking around there the past couple of weekends, hoping to see her again."

They laughed, looking forward already to bursting his bubble. Jacob then seemed to remember something and squirmed.

"What is it?" Bella asked, noticing the look on his face.

"It's nothing." He tried to change the subject, but she sat up straighter and gave him a long stare that would do any mother proud.

"Jacob, if you don't tell me what you were thinking of just now, you will regret it."

He gulped before saying, "I know that I probably have no business assuming this, but I thought that Luna and that guy Harry were shacking up together."

Bella nodded. "I know that it looks like that, but I can tell you flat out that there is nothing going on between them, even though they do live and sleep together. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they bathed together."

"What?! Are you're _okay _with that/" Jacob asked incredulously.

"Yeah, why shouldn't I be? I'll get upset if they start screwing behind my back, but right now I can tell you that there's no romance there. They're just really, really close friends. From what I could weasel out of Luna, they've been through some serious shit together. It's like they're family."

"Oh, that's okay then." He smiled nervously at her. "If you're staying for dinner like I told dad, you're going to have to come with me now to start making the food."

"That's cool with me."

000

Hermione slowly lifted her head, looking fuzzily around before she straightened, panic setting in. Where the hell was she? The only thing around her that looked familiar was her desk, but she'd never seen this much of it before! Peering at it, she could now see that there were tiny unicorns carved into the corners.

Before she could truly lose it and release some accidental magic, someone touched her shoulder gently.

"Hey, did you have a nice nap?" Harry's voice asked, and she blinked. Wasn't he in the States?

"Harry?" she spun in her chair, and then the events earlier in the day, pre-nap, came back to her. "Oh! Damn, I forgot that you'd come to visit me. I thought I was hallucinating."

"Am I really that scary?" He joked.

"Nah, I just thought that you were too lazy to ever drag your arse out here to help me out that I thought that it couldn't possibly be true." They laughed, and she looked around her in wonder. "Where are we?"

He looked at her funny. "We're in your office, Hermione. Are you…feeling okay?"

"Are you lying to me? How…I…where the hell did the parchment go?" she looked around, utterly at a loss. The carpet was spotless, and there weren't any fist-sized spiders inhabiting a veritable city of webs that used to cover her ceiling. "What the…I never realized that it was so big in here."

Harry raised an eyebrow, and exchanged glances with his hooded friend, who shrugged. "After you fell asleep, we decided not to wake you and just kept working until it was all gone. The House Elves took advantage of the temporary empty space to clean it and start rearranging the foundations and walls, which is probably why it doesn't look familiar."

"Oh." She said blandly, in some kind of shock. "I'm starving- let's go eat that dinner you promised me, before they trap me in here with more work."

He grinned. "There's the sneaky girl I know. Let's go!"

"Excellent. Do you mind if I pick the place? There's this great Indian place that Ron keeps trying to take me to, but we haven't gotten around to it. He'll be so excited if he finds out that we're not only eating there together, but that you guys are coming along as well."

Harry looked to Jasper. "Are the spice fumes going to bother you, honey?"

"No, but thank you for asking. Are you sure that you're comfortable with me coming with you on the first dinner you have reuniting with your friends?" He touched Harry's shoulder, tilting his head, "Because if you want to be alone with them, I won't be offended by that. I don't want to intrude."

Hermione watched this with interest. "Wait a second, boys. Are you two friends, or more than that?"

"Uh…" Harry flushed a little bit, and asked Jasper a question with his eyes before continuing, "Yeah, we're together. Hermione, meet Jasper Hale, my beaux."

She snickered. "Nice. It's nice to meet who you really are, Jasper. Oh, and Harry?"

"Hm?" He looked up from where he'd been staring at the carpet in shock. Of course, Hermione had always been open-minded, but coming out to her was ridiculously easy so far.

"I always knew that you had to be gay."

"What?!"

"Yeah." She grinned, grabbing her coat and slipping it on. "if you were straight, Luna would be pregnant by now."

He gaped, mouth flapping like a fish on a deck.

000

"Harry!" Rom nearly tackled him, knocking them back into a brick wall, his arms tight around him. "I missed you a lot!"

Harry laughed and hugged him back, feeling a little teary-eyed himself. Ron was his brother in everything but blood, and he really hoped that coming out to him, and introducing him to Jasper, would go as smoothly as it had with Hermione. If it didn't, he didn't know how he would be able to cope with that kind of rejection.

"You look great!" Ron exclaimed, holding him out and beaming like the sun. "Have you been working out?"

He smiled and shook his head. "All I've done is wander aimlessly through wet forests for hours and hours on end. Does that count?"

"If it gives the kind of muscles I see trying to peek out, then yes." He slapped his back, still grinning brightly enough to cause global warming, and led the way into the Muggle establishment. "They have the absolute best chicken curry here, you guys. You'll love it."

"I love trying new things." Harry commented, taking a seat next to Jasper and re-situating his chair so that they were close enough to hold hands under the table should it prove necessary. "You look really good as well, Ron, and I know that I can't hold Hermione responsible for that for once. What've you been doing with yourself these days?"

He shrugged. "I help out at the Ministry, but they stuck me in charge of the transportation section so I am often in and out of the country several times a day for varying amounts of time, depending on how long it takes me to negotiate re-establishment of connections between countries. The time-zone changes are kind of wearing me down." He confessed, taking a sip of his iced water. "Other than that, what I do isn't too exciting. Why don't you tell me about how things are going as Luna's research bitch?"

Harry choked on his mango drink, shooting it up his nose in an effort to restrain his involuntary laughter. "God, you kill me, Ron."

Ron rubbed his hands together, chuckling like one of those cartoon villains. "At last, at last."

"Oh god, stop it!" Harry wheezed, vainly waving his hand in Ron's face in an attempt to cover his hilarious face. "To answer your question, it's going really well. She found someone special."

Ron almost dropped his menu, which was impressive since he normally held them in a death grip to prevent any passing waiters from snatching it from him prematurely. "No way! Is the guy out of his mind? Or is he just ugly?"

Harry aimed a sharp kick at his shin under the table. "Hey, that's no way to talk about her. We both know that, not only is Luna freakishly smart, she's also very attractive. Luna has a lot going for her, and the only reason she hasn't dated before now is because most guys are too shy."

Ron rolled his eyes. "I know! I was just kidding. Do you have a picture of this guy or, even better, a picture of someone who's caught _your _eye? Seriously, I am going to die if someone doesn't distract my mom from my impending engagement to the lovely Hermione here."

Hermione raised her wine glass in a mockery of a toast, a sarcastic smile on her lips. "Thank you, Ron, for revealing that surprise before it's time."

"Shit!"

"Yeah. Have fun on the couch tonight." She sniped, taking a big gulp of her wine while Harry was still struck dumb and floundering between accusations of secrecy and congratulatory speeches peppered liberally with embarrassing stories from their childhood together.

Harry decided to make fun of Ron instead. He held up an imaginary whip and smacked Ron with it. Ron stuck out his tongue.

"So, Harry, is your boyfriend ever going to take the hood off?" Hermione asked half an hour later, spooning some curry on top of her rice and taking a bite.

Ron choked on his own curry, and actually started crying from having the spices up his nose. She patted him on the back until he recovered, and then he sat up unnaturally straight, peering nervously between Harry and Jasper, who was pretending to sip his water.

"Uh, Harry? Is there something I should know about you?"

000

End chapter 28

This was written while drunk. I'm not kidding. If it sucks, please blame my management for…um…not providing me with food to absorb the alcohol? (shrugs) whatever. I love you all! Even those of you that hate me. I love all of you!


	29. Chapter 29

CHAPTER 29

Harry decided to skip the awkward pause and said the first thing that came out of his mouth, "I'm gayer than Christmas. Sorry for not telling you sooner, but to be fair, I didn't know about it myself until I fell for Jasper."

Ron nodded slowly, blinking rapidly. "Okay, I can't say that I'm surprised. Do I at least get to see his face, or is there a reason for the hood?"

He fiddled with his hands before Jasper reached over and held them.

"What is making Harry so nervous is that there is something else about us that he hasn't told you yet." Jasper offered, reaching up and pushing back his hood. "I'm a Vampire, but I swear to god that I won't hurt either of you, and especially not Harry."

Neither of them said anything, too stunned.

Harry shifted uncomfortably in his chair and then drank half of his wine glass in one gulp, grabbing the bottle and pouring himself some more. "Look, you two, you know that you guys are practically the only family I have, and your approval means a lot to me. Jasper is a Vampire, but he is also my boyfriend, and I would really like it if you guys could look past all of those freaky DADA lectures on fangs and blood-sucking to realize that Jasper is still human in all of the ways that count."

Hermione stole back the wine bottle and topped off hers and Ron's glasses. "Okay, Harry, I'll do my best. I have to admit that he isn't ugly."

"I thought I was the only man you had eyes for!" Ron whined, recovering. He reached across the table and bumped fists with Jasper. "It's nice to meet all of you, mate."

They raised eyebrows at each other before looking back at Harry's friends, both of which were smiling blithely at them.

"Are you really okay with this?" Harry asked, mystified. "I was expecting you to scream and me for being stupid and send me howlers for months."

Hermione smiled mysteriously. "I wouldn't dismiss that howler theory so quickly, little man. Now, why don't you tell me how you two met?"

000

Stumbling a little bit, the friends parted ways after a lengthy dinner that'd lasted until the staff had had to ask them to leave. He leaned heavily on Jasper, who was trying very hard not to laugh at the comical way in which Harry was muttering about earth quakes and spinning.

"If I'd known that you would be such an entertaining drunk, I would have started spiking your drinks ages ago." He commented, unlocking their hotel room and gracefully kicking the door shut with his heel as he made his way to the bed, swinging Harry into his arms bridal-style before laying him out on the bed. "Now, you stay here and I'll be right back with your pajamas and a cloth for your face."

Harry grabbed at him before he could move too far away, though, and his fingers caught in his belt loops. "Don't bother." He slurred. "I'll just sleep in my underwear."

He nodded. "Alright; I still need to get that cloth for you, though. Just give me a second." Gently, he removed Harry's fingers from his belt loop and dashed into the bathroom. Three seconds later, since he'd accidentally used hot water instead of cold at first, he was back. He delicately wiped Harry's face like he was a baby and then his hands, smiling when Harry struggled to slide off his trousers.

"Do you need help with that?" He teased when Harry started cursing at his own belt buckle in earnest. Harry nodded, sticking out his lower lip.

"Why are clothes so complicated?"

Jasper shrugged, pulling down his zipper and smoothly pulling his trousers down. "I don't know, but if you think these are complicated, you should have seen the good old days when we didn't have zippers."

Harry shuddered. "Ugh, that must have been awful. I bet people pissed themselves a lot because they couldn't get the buttons off quick enough."

"Probably." Jasper smiled down at him, sliding his shirt off of his shoulders and folding it neatly. "Comfy?"

Harry nodded vigorously, reaching up his arms like a small child. "Come down here, please?"

"In a minute; you might be willing to sleep in your undergarments, which are delightfully thin by the way, but I am not." He laughed at the way Harry's flushed face blushed even brighter from something that had nothing to do with the alcohol, and pulled some sleep clothes out of his suitcase, getting into them in such record time that he knew Harry wouldn't have too much time to ogle him. While he could definitely appreciate the physical aspect of Harry, he didn't want to tempt either of them into prematurely complicating things.

"Now will you come here?" Harry demanded, propping himself up on his elbows and looking at the blonde with remarkable coyness for his state. "I'm getting lonely."

"Behave." He chided, crawling in beside him. "Hey, just because you're cute doesn't mean that I will put up with you stealing all four of the pillows."

Harry snickered, hugging one to his chest protectively. "If you want it, you'll have to pry it from my-"

Before he finished speaking, Jasper had snuck it out of his hands somehow and smugly beat it into shape before laying it under his head. He flashed Harry his tongue. "You were saying?"

"Bastard." Harry didn't roll over and show him his back, though. Instead he shimmied closer; sheets bunching and pulling at his skin before Jasper pulled them free and helped Harry snuggle up under his chin. The thick cotton of Jasper's sleep shirt protected Harry from the cold, and Harry played with his hair until he fell asleep.

The Vampire was left to struggle with his body's natural reaction to Harry's proximity and his curiosity over what would happen when Harry's skin heated in arousal. Would his own skin absorb some of that heat, cool it, or have no effect?

He ached to know, and ended up sneaking out of bed to go hunt down some stray animals. It would be a poor dinner, but he needed to keep his resistance to the call of Harry's blood up.

000

Harry grumbled when Jasper shook him awake, pulling the nearest thing over his head, which just so happened to be Jasper.

He squeaked since this put Harry very close to his morning problem, thanks to sleeping that closely to him last night, and tried to move tactfully away from him. "Ah, Harry? It's time for you to wake up."

Harry shook his head, nuzzling into his stomach instead. Jasper let out a shaky breath, and decided to tell the truth. Either Harry wouldn't hear him or it would shock him into getting out of bed and grooming himself. "Harry, that's turning me on. Please stop before I do something we'll both regret."

"What?" Harry mumbled, his mouth vibrating against his stomach. He knew damn well what he was doing, but Jasper was too tight-laced. A little messing around wouldn't kill either of them. He pulled back just enough to flash Jasper how wide awake his eyes were. "I didn't catch that."

"Harry-"

He sighed and removed himself from Jasper's personal space, rolling over on the bed and looking up at him mournfully. "I'm saying yes, Jazz. There's nothing to be scared of."

"I'm not scared." He sighed and sat down on the bed, setting his cell phone down on the end table. "I just don't want to rush this. You know, I don't even know how you take your coffee or how you feel about world peace and voting yet. I just wanted to wait until we knew each other really well before I started…well, you know."

Harry soothingly rubbed his arm. "I understand. I just want you to know that I'll let you know when it's _not _okay to touch me."

He laughed, and then pounced on him, driving both of them over the side of the bed and onto the carpet. Bracing his arms on either side of Harry's head, he kissed him good morning. "Thank you for that. Now, go scrub yourself so we can go stuff more junk food into you and rescue Hermione from her paperwork."

He made a face. "Ugh, I can't believe that she's been doing all of that alone for so long."

"I believe what you said about her being a little crazy with a cause now." Jasper agreed.

They, or Harry, breakfasted on the free coffee in the lobby and also a pastry he managed to buy before Jasper could pay for it.

"Why won't you let me spoil you?" Jasper grumbled, walking as slowly as Harry and enjoying not wearing his hood. The sky was overcast and threatening to rain, but neither of them minded the prospect.

"Because you've already paid for the airfare and the hotel room, and I wouldn't feel right if I just sat back and let you pay for everything like some kind of sugar daddy."

"I'm not really built for the sugar daddy role." Jasper wrinkled his nose, checking out his reflection in the glass of the book shop they were passing. "I'm too skinny and harmless-looking."

"Ha! You might not be noticeably menacing, but I always did believe in the phrase 'watch out for the quiet ones'." Harry bumped against him, grinning. "Do you have any napkins on you? That powdered sugar turned out to be peskier than it looked." He pointed to the snowy mess on the front of his jacket. "If I'd known it was going to get _everywhere…" _he sighed.

Jasper reached into his coat pocket and pulled a packet of tissues that he kept around in case somebody asked him, reaching over and wiping his face for him despite Harry's false protestations. "Oh, hush. I don't believe that you're actually upset." He smirked, a glint coming into his eyes. "The heart never lies, you know."

"On the contrary, I believe that the heart is an indecisive and deceitful little organ that enjoys torturing the rest of the body." Harry glared down at his own chest. "A lot of things would be different if our hearts could just behave themselves, or at least be less convincing."

"You have a point. I was married to Alice for many years, after all." He hummed, pointing to the elevator, disguised as a telephone booth. "We're here."

As they stood inside, Harry looked up and met his eyes. "Jasper, can I ask you something?"

"Of course, sugar." He swiped a little bit of the powdered sugar that'd escaped his cleaning earlier away with his thumb. "What do you want to know?"

"Um, okay, if your family and that other group in Alaska managed to turn your backs on the desire to feed off of humans because you feel empathy for us and didn't want to go around murdering, why aren't more Vampires like that?" He shuffled from one foot to the other as the booth descended, absently taking their visitor's buttons and pinning Jasper's on first.

"I honestly don't know." Jasper shrugged. "I never thought about it before. Maybe it's because there aren't very many of us, and my coven is the percentage of Vampires that can still feel compassion?" he sighed gustily. "Great, now I'm going to be thinking about this for the next 500 years."

Harry laughed, leading the way to the steps and walking slowly so that he could take in the almost-complete rebuilt Ministry. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Jasper pulling his hood up and tugging it down to his nose so that no wizards would try to kill him. The Ministry was far more impressive now than it'd been when he first saw it at age 15 since they'd expanded and made a much more practical use of the way it was shaped; the fountain was being replaced as they crossed the lobby, and he could see that it was a far more appropriate memorial- it was a perfectly-shaped sphere carved with the names of all of those who had died to defend the country in the last battle, with a smaller sphere about two feet from it, this time carved with the names of those who'd survived. Harry snorted when he saw his own name in a larger font than the others.

"You did a really good job, Jasper." He complimented, running his hand admiringly down the banister as they climbed the stairs. "It looks beautiful in here- more like an art museum than a stuffy government building. I wouldn't mind working here."

"I wasn't the only one who designed it." Jasper replied, looking pleased with himself regardless of his protests. "You helped, and we did base our ideas off of what Hermione already had sketched out."

"Oh, shut up. I can feel you smirking, you bastard." Harry waved a hand at him, stopping to get some tea for Hermione at the card table and proceeding down the hall to where he knew her office was.

000

Another long day and even bigger dinner behind them, Harry stretched and informed Jasper that he was going to the restroom. Hermione immediately engaged the Vampire in a detailed interrogation about his family, going so far as to take notes and ask him how he felt about some things.

Harry took care of business and approached the mirror wearily; brushing some of his hair behind his ears and smoothing it back off of his forehead. He no longer felt self-conscious about his scar, since people could recognize his whole face now and it wouldn't incite mobs any longer.

Turning on the cold water, he bent his head and splashed it. He could hear the soft creak of hinges and then the roar of water as someone else exited a stall, but thought nothing of it. He reached blindly for a paper towel, but instead his arm was grabbed and before he could blink, it was twisted behind his back and he could feel the sharp bite of a blade poking against his ribs.

Desperately, he kicked back and caught his attacker in the shin, startling him into loosening his hold. Swiping at his face with his sleeve, he got an image of a burly guy with shaggy grey-brown hair and amber eyes before he charged again, knife flashing in the fluorescent lights.

He let out a yell and ducked, reaching for the knife he kept strapped to his ankle. He was interrupted by the werewolf, who he recognized as one of the followers of Fenrir Greyback who'd gone missing, slamming into him. His head cracked against the hard tiles of the floor, and he saw stars before the werewolf sank his teeth into his neck and tried to rip out his throat. Whimpering with pain and struggling to get away, he pulled out his dagger.

It sank easily into the werewolf's back, tearing through his leather jacket and glancing off of his shoulder-blade. Harry yanked it out, already feeling himself going light-headed as the werewolf sank his jaws, a mere mockery of a human mouth, into his neck. He stabbed him repeatedly in the back, hysterical now, and continued to do so long after the jaw loosened and the monster began to go limp. His weight crushed Harry against the floor, and tears blurred his eyes from the shock and the pain. His neck was in agony, and he could only thank the gods that it wasn't a full moon, meaning that he wouldn't be infected.

The door burst open, several of the staff standing there armed with large trays and one even gripping a rolling pin like it was a bludgeon. They gasped when they saw the spectacle, and one of them dashed off to call the police.

Jasper wormed his way around the other people trying to see what was going on, his eyes flashing with rage as he saw what had happened to his boyfriend in the short space of time that they'd been apart. He was chided not to move the injured party, but he knelt by Harry's side and replaced the waitress who was pressing a thick towel to his neck to the stop the bleeding.

"Jasper…" Harry gasped hoarsely, touching his arm fondly. "Are you alright with the…?" he looked meaningfully at the puddle of blood surrounding them.

He shook his head in disbelief. "You're asking _me _if I'm alright: unbelievable."

Harry smiled bashfully at him, wincing when the muscles in his neck contracted, spurting more blood out. He slipped smoothly into unconsciousness.

000

End chapter 29


	30. Chapter 30

CHAPTER 30

Surgery had to be performed on Harry's neck because, in addition to the shredded skin and punctured veins, one of the werewolf's teeth had broken off and lodged itself in one of his major veins. There was a strong possibility of him dying of blood loss before they even had him properly sedated, but, by some miracle, he lived. This may or may not have had something to do with the blood-replenishing potions that somehow ended up in his saline drip.

Reluctantly separated from him, Jasper twiddled his thumbs and bounced his knees in the waiting room, sandwiched between Hermione, who was weeping softly into her boyfriend's shoulder, and a very pregnant woman who was leaning on his shoulder while snorting in her sleep every couple of minutes loudly enough to jar him. He didn't protest, though. For all he cared, he could be surrounded by raging Quileute Wolves and not notice.

His mind was completely wrapped around one overwhelming fact that he'd managed to forget about until now: that Harry was mortal. Someday, hopefully not today, Harry would die.

He couldn't move past that, too frozen in the horror of it to contemplate its prevention.

000

When he came to, it was to the sounds of distant moans and screams of pain. Everything around him irritated him, from the paper-thin sheets to the constant electrical noises around him. It was like he was both hyper-sensitive and yet floating just beneath his senses, stunted or crippled from seeing things clearly.

He was aware of someone, or several people, beside him, but chose not to acknowledge that yet in favor of twitching all ten of his toes one by one, then his knees, hips, torso, and then his arms.

Sharp, shooting pain came from his neck when he tried to shift his shoulders, and he whimpered like a wounded animal.

Smooth, impossibly smooth hands soothed him by stroking his hair and the side of his face that hurt less. The hands were very cold, and tipped with sharp elegant nails that he could feel delicately scraping against his jaw.

Opening his eyes fully and forcing them to focus, Harry at last saw Jasper, leaning half way over the bed, his worried face inches from his. He tried to smile, but it hurt too much and he let out a little scream.

"Shh, Harry, don't move. Please don't injure yourself anymore than you already are." He smoothed the broad side of his palm across Harry's cheek, cupping it and bending down to kiss his forehead. "I'm so grateful that you made it through the operation." He whispered, kissing the bridge of his nose as delicately as a butterfly would land on a flower. Harry winced from the pressure anyway.

"Sorry." Jasper whispered, eyes pained, "I didn't want to hurt you."

Harry opened his mouth to tell him that it was okay, and discovered that his voice box didn't work. He tried again, and got a slow burn of pain instead.

"What's wrong? Do you need something?"

Harry tried to shake his head, and got treated to another bout of pain.

"Hey, hey, hey- don't move your head. The doctors said not to. Here-" He fumbled with something in his wallet, and pulled out one of those cheap pencils they give out for free, the ones that are so small you can barely write with it, and a receipt. "Just write down what you want to say."

He accepted the receipt with shaking fingers, and leaned it against his knee. As neatly as he could, he wrote,

_I'm thirsty. Love you._

Jasper read over his shoulder, and smiled when he read the last part. "I'll go call the nurse, and get some ice chips for you to suck on."

He stood and was about to leave, but bent down and kissed Harry's mouth as gently as he could so as not to disturb his bandages. "I love you too."

000

He wasn't let out of the hospital until three long weeks had passed, during which he was visited daily by both Jasper and Ron. Hermione couldn't come as often, but she came when she could, although she often had to bring work with her. She would sit, cross legged, in the uncomfortable beige chair beside his bed and they'd bounce ideas off of each other via his notepad.

Luna was informed of Harry's condition, and asked permission to tell Bella, since she didn't want to abandon her girlfriend without explanation. After a whispered discussion, they decided to tell her that he'd been attacked by a mad man. None of them wanted to scare her with tales of violent werewolves.

Once he was allowed to leave, he was moved to Hermione's flat, where Jasper had been keeping his things, and set up on the sofa bed.

"There we are!" Hermione clapped her hands, looking far more like her old self instead of a gray-faced worker drone. "Now, who wants tea? I can ice yours, Harry."

He waved his right hand, which was their signal for 'yes', and Ron nodded as well.

"Do you want me to help you out, 'Mione?" He offered, getting half out of his seat. "I kind of moved around the kitchen last week when we started buying proper food instead of freezer meals."

She smiled and crooked her finger at him. "Well then, you'd better come enlighten me."

Left to themselves for the moment, Jasper sidled closer to Harry and very carefully kissed the edge of his jaw, which was all that he could reach above the neck brace. Harry's lips quirked upwards, and his hand sought out the blonde's.

"How are you feeling?" He asked softly, gathering Harry's hair in his hand and pushing it back from his forehead. He tucked the longer pieces behind his wars, taking time to stroke the strands and then the shells of the ears.

Harry shivered a little bit and groped for his note pad. In neat letters, he wrote one word, _Tease._

Jasper smiled deviously and shrugged. "I try to take care of your needs, and this is how you thank me?"

Harry's lips quirked up a little bit and he rolled his eyes.

"That's what I thought." Jasper said cheekily, setting up some pillows in the arm of the couch and then seizing Harry around the middle. He settled himself down, and then pulled Harry between his legs, ensuring that no strain or undue pressure was applied to his neck. "Do you have any discomfort like this?" He asked once he was done, and Harry wagged his hand 'no'. "Good."

Hermione came out of the kitchen holding a tall glass with a straw protruding from it, which she handed to Harry. He accepted it, and then gratefully stroked Jasper's palm when he reached around him and steadied his grip so that the condensed glass wouldn't slip through his weaker-than-normal grip.

"Alright, we need to discuss the game plan." Hermione announced, accepting her mug from Ron and blowing on it. "Harry, are you staying here or do you intend to return to the States?"

He wagged his hand no, and then elaborated on his note pad. Jasper read out loud over his shoulder, "I want to go back to the U.S. to continue researching."

Ron shrugged. "Well, that settles that, then. You're welcome to come back anytime, though. It's nice to play chess with someone new every once in a while." He smiled at Jasper.

"How much longer do you think you'll need before you're comfortable on a plane? Or however you plan on crossing the great blue distance between our countries…" Hermione's voice got softer and softer as her eyes misted over. Her head leaned back against the sofa and she didn't say anything else. Soon, soft snores could be heard, her head cold creating the nasally sounds.

Those still awake exchanged looks and had to stifle their laughter. Ron picked up Hermione and took her to her room. When he came back, he sat on the end of the couch Jasper and Harry were on.

"Seriously though, how much longer will we have you? I wouldn't push you to answer normally, but if you're staying longer than this Saturday, Hermione and I will need to alter our food shopping schedule and finally buy a proper set of sheets for the sofa bed."

Harry held up three fingers.

"Is that three days or three weeks? Yes means the first, no means the second"

He waved his fingers 'yes'.

"Once again, you have simplified things in my lovely girlfriend's control-freak schedule. It helps that you don't eat anything, Jasper." He stretched lightly, and then asked, "So…who wants to watch re-runs of irritating TV shows?"

000

"How long will you be gone?" Bella asked, following Luna into the living room and helping her arrange her toiletries in the small overnight bag she was packing. "I mean, take your time and all, since I know he needs you, but I would still like to know when I'll be seeing you again."

Luna paused and cast her eyes skywards, muttering under her breath. "Well, if everything goes smoothly, I should be back the day after tomorrow, Harry in tow. Do you think that you won't get too lonely without me? I promise to hurry home, honey."

She blushed and swatted away Luna's hand, which was creeping towards her bum. "Don't make fun of me."

The blonde's face became serious. "I only meant to tease you; I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings-"

"I was kidding!" Bella swiftly kissed her cheek, and then scooted into their kitchen before Luna could draw her into yet another kiss fest when they were supposed to be packing.

Luna followed hot on her heels and cornered her against the fridge, where Bella was preparing to pour herself some orange juice. Tilting her head invitingly, she licked her lips and smirked at her.

"Hey now…" Bella's protest died, and she wrapped her arms around Luna's shoulders to prevent her from running away like a tease. After several minutes, she pulled away. "Wait, what about your flight? Isn't it in, like, an hour?"

"Fuck my flight." Luna growled, ruining the effect by giggling a second later. She kissed Bella's nose, and then licked her cheek. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too." Bella mumbled, still a little stunned that Luna felt perfectly free to stealthily feel her up. She didn't mind, it was just the principle of the thing. Too many years of being told to maintain a virginal attitude towards sex take a long time to wear of, after all. "Call me when you get there so I can know that you're okay."

000

Luna nearly missed her flight, but left safely despite it all.

She sat listlessly on her bed, alone, and pecked at her homework. Without Luna's constant commentary and questions about this thing or that that she found lying around in her room, it was shockingly hard to concentrate.

Huffing, she closed her books and flopped backwards in bed. Her ceiling was as boring as ever, and so were her walls, and the floor. Even though there was a small stack of books on her night stand, loaned courtesy of Luna, she couldn't find the will to so much as crack a cover.

As the afternoon wore on, she only got more depressed and caught herself twiddling her thumbs more than once. A glance at the clock on her nightstand proved that she ought to be preparing dinner for her father right now, but her legs might as well have been made of lead.

"Ugh, why did you have to go?" She whined to her ceiling at last, rolling over and shoving her face into her pillow.

"If I'd known that you would miss me this much, I wouldn't have left you." A smooth voice that used to haunt her dreams replied out of thin air, dangerously close to her ear. Her entire spine stiffened, and her shoulder blades drew up like wings, ready to shield her.

"Edward?"

000

End chapter 30

And the sparkly-assed ex-boyfriend is back!

.


	31. Chapter 31

CHAPTER 31

She lifted her head very slowly off of her pillow and turned it to the side so that she could see him and make sure that she wasn't hallucinating again. His crotch was directly at eye level, and she wrinkled her nose in disgust. She might be a virgin, but she had absolutely no interest in the contents of his trousers.

"Yes, Bella, it is I. I realized the error of my ways and-"

She held up a hand, a sneer twisting her lips. "Save it, schmuck. I don't want to hear your story."

He seemed to be confused, so she said her next words slowly and carefully, taking the time to enunciate every syllable so that there would be no chance of him misunderstanding her.

"I am seeing someone else, and I know you well enough to see that you are here to try and win me back, although I can't imagine why. So I figured that we could cut to the chase: my answer is no." She reclined back on her bed, casually taking a sip of her orange juice.

Edward slowly sat down on the edge of her bed, looking first at her, and then at the floor when she calmly stared directly into his eyes, raising an eyebrow when he raised a hand to try and touch her.

"Bella…"

"What?" She asked harshly, setting her orange juice down and picking up a nail file. The sandpapery sound of her running it across her nails made him cringe, shoulders hiking up as the sound sent those scratchy shivers down his spine.

"Who is it?" He asked softly, finally working up his courage. Never had he wished that he could read her mind more. If he could, then maybe he could work out why she had seen fit to move on so rapidly. Sure, they hadn't parted on good terms, but he'd thought that he knew her well enough to tell that she would rather wither away than start seeing other people. "Is it…is it that Quileute boy?"

"No, it's nobody you know. Jake and I became pretty close, though. He really helped me when I wanted to _kill myself _rather than go on living without you." a particularly vicious flick of her wrist punctuated that stab to his heart as she smoothed out a stubborn nail. "But enough about me, darling; what have you been up to?"

"I…well, nothing much. I tried to hunt down Victoria, but she covered her tracks very well and then tricked me with false trails. I eventually had to give up trying to find her. She's a very talented Vampire." He nervously clasped his hands in his lap, and tried to smile at Bella. She flashed him her teeth, sawing at her thumbnail savagely.

"I'm sorry to hear that. Talented or not, she deserves to die, and painfully, for what she did and furthermore for what she might be doing right now." Finished with her nails, she replaced the file in her drawer. "How is your family? I've seen Alice and Jasper quite a bit lately, but all the same, the rest of them haven't stopped by so I confess that I'm curious. Did Esme find someone new to cook new recipes for?"

He shook his head. "Not yet, but she's been cooking anyway. She leaves the food out for the animals when she tires of looking at it." He shifted closer cautiously, moving slowly to give her time to protest. Her only acknowledgement of his proximity was to raise her other eyebrow and cross her ankles. "I don't mean to back track, but can you at least tell me about your new boyfriend?"

Bella tossed back her head and laughed louder than he had ever heard her laugh. Tears came into her eyes, and her chest quivered with mirth. "Oh my god…! You mean, you don't know? Alice didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?" He snapped, clapping a hand over his mouth when he realized how harsh that'd sounded.

"That I'm a lesbian. My _girlfriend _is blonde, beautiful, British, and smarter than anybody else I know. If you have anything nasty to say about that, keep it to yourself because I don't want to hear it. Is there anything else that you need to know?"

He bit his lip, "Can we ever be friends again?"

"We're we ever friends to start with? I didn't feel in control of myself for one minute that we were together, and when you left it was like my puppet strings had been cut, and I collapsed, lifeless and without meaning in my life. I'm not sure that I want to experience that again." she looked uncomfortable for the first time, some of her cool façade fading away. "Besides, I don't think that it would be fair to Luna for me to suddenly start spending time with my ex-boyfriend again so soon after our own relationship started. We're still in the discovery stage, as she would call it, and I don't know how she feels about things like this."

"But why should you let someone else's desires or insecurities decide who you can and cannot be friends with?" Edward retorted, proud of himself for pointing that out to her. If they really had just started dating, then all he would need was enough alone time with her to convince her to leave this lesbian nonsense behind and become his once more.

A twisted smile crossed her face, disappearing as soon as it came. "Yes, Edward, why should I let my partner control who I choose to be friends with?"

He was confused. What did this have to do with….? Why was she agreeing with him in that tone? "Bella-" he started, but she cut him off with a slicing motion of her hand.

"Shut up, Edward. Are you really so blind that you can't see what I meant?"

He slowly shook his head, still not knowing where she was going with this.

"God, you really aren't perceptive, are you?" She chuckled softly. "Well, how about I remind you? Who was it who told me what my friends really thought of me, and who was it who denied me a friendship with Jacob and all of his tribe simply because of an ancient grudge that had absolutely nothing to do with me? And who the fuck thought that he could just waltz back into my life like nothing happened between us to break my heart, like you didn't leave me to sob my heart out, alone, in the middle of the woods?"

His eyes were wide, and he slid back an inch. She couldn't possibly mean what she was saying. She was wrong; she had to be.

"Bella, you couldn't be more wrong. Jacob is a danger to you and-"

"Oh really? Who, I ask you, is the bigger danger: the boyfriend who ditches his girlfriend for the flimsiest excuse on the planet and then has the nerve to steal back everything he ever gave her, or the boy who took care of that girl and made her realize that there was more to life than said asshole boyfriend?"

"You don't understand." He hissed. "I could kill you any minute if you so much as gave yourself a paper cut."

"You know, threatening me like that while simultaneously trying to get back into my good graces isn't really going to work." She snorted. "Good cop/bad cop acts only work with two people. And to be perfectly honest with you, I am sick of you messing with my head like that. You've manipulated me and then tossed me aside like garbage. Forgive me if I don't want to buy your bullshit anymore."

Struck dumb, he could only stare at what remained of the girl he'd dated last year.

"What are you looking at?" she snapped, waving a math test at him. "Shoo!"

Before he could go more than halfway down the stairs, she called after him, "Say hello to your mother for me!"

Shaking his head, he descended the rest of the stairs and soundlessly exited out the back door, aiming for the woods. He considered not passing her greeting onto Esme, but his mother had any uncanny gift for detecting withheld information and she would want to know how things had gone with Bella.

He wished he could have seen a picture of his new rival, or at least squeezed a name out of Bella so that he could run a background test and dig up some dirt on her. Nobody was perfect, and he took rivalry very seriously. Bella had been his first girlfriend, and he still carried a torch for her in his heart. That torch still burned strong, and he wasn't going to let it go ignored. Whoever this lesbian who'd corrupted Bella was, she'd better watch out.

Edward didn't lose a fight when he put his mind to it.

000

"Luna! Over here!" Hermione enthusiastically waved to her across the crowds in the airport, and Luna pushed through the people, elbowing when necessary. She hugged Hermione tightly, taking in the scent of her first crush.

"Hello, Hermione."

"Cheers!" Hermione laughed, chest and neck vibrating against her ear where their cheeks pressed together. When they separated, she hooked their arms together and stole Luna's smaller bag. "Come on, I'll buy you a fancy coffee."

"Really? That's kind of you." Luna cooed, kissing her cheek gratefully. Hermione just waved a hand breezily.

"I haven't you in a while, honey. It's the least I can do. Just think of it as a celebration gift for your new girlfriend." She smirked when Luna stared at her, speechless. "Harry told me that you met a girl in the States, and, believe you me, you have some questions to answer. I want to know everything!"

Luna giggled, stepping behind an old lady in line for the coffee. "Okay, okay. I'll give you every sordid detail about how I caress her tight-"

"Dear god!" Hermione feigned horror, covering her ears and shaking her head. "Please, not _those _details."

Luna rolled her eyes and placed her order, standing to the side and letting Hermione swipe her credit card.

"Hey, since when do you carry plastic?" She wondered, snatching it before Hermione could tuck it back into her wallet and running the pad of her thumb across the upraised plastic digits. "This is pretty cool."

"It's just a credit card." Hermione shrugged. "Hell, you can have it if you want. It's just got a little less than fifty pounds left on it."

She blinked at her, looking from the credit to Hermione. "Since when is fifty pounds nothing to sneeze at?"

"Um, since they started paying me for my services to the country." She blew on her coffee, and took a tentative lick of the foam. "They make the absolute best foam here."

"Oh, totally. So, how is Harry?"

Hermione shrugged. "He wants to go back to the States soon, but he's been a huge help around here. I never could have gotten half of what he accomplished in a week done in a month. I was just so swamped and exhausted, but he dropped out of the sky with that wonder-working boyfriend of his and dug me out." She smiled wistfully. "I would have preferred to keep him around for a little bit longer, but I want him to go on holiday more. Besides, he seems to really enjoy researching with you."

Luna smiled. "I'm happy to hear that. Maybe I can help you as well while I'm here?"

She waved a hand, spilling a little coffee on her wrist. "Ouch!" she accepted a napkin from Luna gratefully, shooting her a sheepish smile. "This always happens to me. But what I was going to say earlier is that I don't expect you to work while you're here."

The blonde shrugged a shoulder. "Honey, with you spilling coffee everywhere and obviously managing the whole freaking country, the least I can do is pull my weight a little while I impose on your flat and eat your food. I'm not picky about what you have me do- hell, I'll even bake 'morale-boosting' biscuits if you'd like."

Hermione giggled. "Too late for the biscuits; I had Jasper do that one already, and it would take some serious cooking school expertise to out-do those biscuits." She licked her lips. "The word 'delicious' doesn't cover it. But all hope is not lost! You can always help me sort out everything that is too difficult for everyone else. I could use your smarts."

"Hey, I'll be available for the rest of today, tomorrow, and a couple of hours the day after that. As long as I can check up on Harry regularly and keep him company, I don't mind."

"You're such a sweetheart." Hermione beamed and kissed her cheek, throwing her arm around her and leading the way outside to a taxi that would take them to her flat. Neither of them had the energy to apparatate, and the Portkey system was more messed up than they wanted to think about. With luck, that would no longer be the case by the time Luna and Harry left for the States.

000

Jacob shuffled his body weight from foot to foot, his eyes flickering all over the room, examining everything but the eyes of his pack mates.

"You _told _her?" Sam Uley finally spoke up, although his voice sounded more like an angry wolf than a peeved human. "Do you have any idea how much you have endangered yourself, not to mention the rest of us? Do you mean nothing to you now?"

He closed his eyes tightly, trying to fight back tears. "I told you already, she figured it on her own. I would never betray the pack. I love all of you like the family you are: you know that. If you don't believe me, I'll transform again and prove it."

Sam rubbed the bridge of his nose, resting one hand on his hip. "And we love you as well, Jake, but this is unacceptable."

"What are you saying?" He whispered.

"I'm saying that I am temporarily expelling you from the pack until I decide whether or not you can be trusted." He dropped the hand covering his eyes and met Jacob's gaze. "This hurts me more than it hurts you."

"I…understand." Jacob picked up the scraps of his latest destroyed shirt and silently left, the eyes of his previous pack following him until he was out of sight.

000

End chapter 31

Sorry for the period of silence- I wasn't home.


	32. Chapter 32

CHAPTER 32

Once she was sure that he was gone, Bella curled up into herself and sobbed dryly into her knees, quivering from head to toe. Despite everything that he'd put her through, Edward had been her first love and seeing him again had brought up all kinds of feelings that she'd thought were long dead. If she hadn't been dating Luna, then she probably would have caved in under his mournful gaze and taken him back out of sheer pity.

Her moment of weakness passed and she uncurled, stretching her arms and sighing. She hoped Luna would be back before she was murdered by her teachers for not doing any of her homework.

Reaching over, she picked up her glass and finished off her orange juice. Since she was still thirsty, she rolled out of bed and stumbled downstairs, slipping a little bit when her socks lost traction but managing not to fall over completely.

She was halfway through pouring her glass when the phone rang, startling her into dropping the jug. "Damn it!" she cursed, wiping her hands on her shirt and picking up the phone. "Hello?" she snapped.

"Oh, sorry, is now a bad time?" Jacob's voice asked. He didn't sound like he normally did; he sounded like a scared little boy. Her eyes softened and she knelt to mop up the mess with a paper towel.

"Jake?"

"Yeah, it's me." he sighed, sounding disappointed. "I can call back later, though. I don't want to bother you with my little problems."

She giggled, feeling bad a moment later since he was obviously upset. "Its okay, I can talk. I was just irritated about something." She snorted. "It's no big deal, though. What's going on?"

He sighed again. "Do you remember how you figured out that I was a wolf?"

A frown creased her forehead. "Yes…" she drew the word out. "What of it?"

"Well, I was a part of a wolf pack, which consisted of that group of guys on the reservation run by Sam Uley that we used to make fun of. Anyways, when we are transformed, we can read each other's minds. It's how we communicate as a pack. But it also allowed them to find out that you knew about us, and I got…"

"You got what?" she sat back on her haunches, dripping paper towel hanging limply from her hand. "Did they hurt you? If they did, you just tell me and I will come down there with my dad's shotgun and-"

He laughed, although she could tell that he wasn't expecting to. "No, they didn't hurt me physically, though I wish they would. Maybe my heart would hurt less if they did."

"Jake, what did they do to you?"

"They kicked me out of the pack temporarily. They said that they couldn't trust me with pack secrets if I was just going to blab them to you later. I can understand why they did it, since it's obviously unsafe for all of us and not just me personally, but I still feel awful." He sniffled. "It's like being orphaned."

"Oh, Jake, that's awful. Did you want to come over?"

"Don't you have homework?" He asked, and she could hear his bedsprings squeak as he shifted. She smiled at the thought of his legs hanging off of the end.

"Yeah, but I can't concentrate. I've gotten used to my girlfriend hanging around talking to me and helping me and now that she's gone, I don't know how to do it alone anymore even though it hasn't been that long since we've been together." She tossed the paper towels in the trash and swiped a dry cloth across the remaining driblets to finish the job. "I feel like I've known her forever, that she's always been a part of my life."

"I know how you feel." He mumbled, and she winced. "I felt horrible every day that I ignored you."

"I know, Jake, I know. And I forgive you, so you can leave the past behind and get your butt over here before I go crazy from loneliness." _Or Edward comes back, _she silently added.

"Okay, I'm coming. Did you want me to bring anything with me?"

"Nope, just bring you. I'll cheer you up so fast that you'll forget that you were ever part of a crummy little wolf pack."

"Alright, well, bye."

"Bye." She whispered, and hung up.

000

Harry sat up weakly when Luna burst into the living room, and braced himself for the expected hug. She wrapped her arms with special care low around his waist instead of neck like she used to, and tenderly kissed his cheek.

"Poor Harry; you were gone less than a week and you got yourself all injured." Luna clucked her tongue at him, and then shot a smile at Jasper. "You, sir, are a saint for taking such good care of Harry here. He can be a pain in the ass when he's supposed to be resting, as our old school nurse would tell you if she were here. This boy used to sneak out of hospitals like nobody's business. It's a credit to you that he's been behaving himself and not scratching at that neck brace like a raging dog."

Harry made a growling noise at her, a hint of a smile glittering in the depths of his eyes.

"Aw, you can't sass me now? Poor Harry." She cackled and insinuated herself between them, crossing her legs and stealing a sip of Harry's tea. "So…what have you boys been doing for fun?"

He reached over and picked up his notepad, writing a word in neater cursive than she'd ever thought that he could manage. It would seem that his disability had improved one area of his repertoire of talents.

"Necking?" she read out loud, raising her eyebrows incredulously. "Seriously? What are you, fifteen?"

Harry chuckled, though it was hoarse and his hand half-rose to his throat before dropping back into his lap.

"Close enough." Jasper supplied with a wink, reaching around her to stroke Harry's hair. "I'm having trouble not touching him right now, in fact…"

"Gah!" she leapt off the couch as if burned. "If you two want to be perverts, that's fine, but just warn me, okay? I might get lonely and decide to join you if you rub it in my face too much."

They smiled at her like twin wolves, and she backed slowly away, feigning fear. Dropping her ruse, she looked helpfully from one to the other. "Since I'm up, do either of you need anything? Some water or perhaps a dead rabbit for you, monsieur Vampire?"

He smirked. "No, thank you. I just ate."

"Oh?"

"The birds here are only too friendly, and I always catch them before they think to be afraid."

She made a face. "Ugh. Have fun eating your vultures, then. I won't try to steal them away."

"Are you sure?" he teased. "They're quite tasty once you get the taste of shit out of your mouth."

"God, now I'm going to be tasting that whenever I see one." A sly look came across her features, and she sidled back over to the sofa, although she chose to sit on the floor this time rather than between them. "You know, I think that this might be the most that you've ever said to me, Jasper."

He shrugged. "It takes time to get to know me, and I prefer to keep my thoughts to myself most of the time."

"Pity, that. I'll bet that you've seen and done some pretty interesting things during your oh-so-long life. It's a crime to keep things like that to yourself, you know." She jabbed at his calf with her nail, grinning when he shifted out of the way.

"Almost none of them are very nice stories." He retorted. "So which is the crime: keeping those to myself or giving all who hear them unnecessary fear and sleeplessness?"

"Well, if you put it that way…" She crossed her ankles, admiring the contrast of her mismatched socks. It looked like a rose bush was growing across a forest. "Besides necking and making biscuits like the domesticated old people you are, what have you been up to?"

Jasper shrugged. "Not too much. We've read a few books, watched TV when our heads hurt too much from the books, and I've watched him sleep. The most exciting thing that's happened is getting to watch potions work their magic, but that'd nothing new to you. What about you? Have you made any progress with the great big research project?"

"Not really, no. I think that I will have to pay a visit to Alaska soon and get a wider review of the minute differences between your kinds of Vampires. I am also considering taking a trip around the world to all of the places with very little sunshine or populations and setting up trip alarms for Vampire activity so that the Ministry can get a better idea of what kind of numbers we are dealing with."

He nodded. "That sounds reasonable. I can give you a list of the places that come to mind, to give you a head start."

"Would you? That's so nice of you." she beamed up at him. "Also, I was planning to surprise the Volturi and kill them all when they least expect it."

Jasper's eyes went wide. "Ah, that might not be the best idea. They're in charge because of their superhuman skills in combat and-"

She held a hand over his mouth, unblinking. "Jasper, if I could participate in a war before I was even considered an adult then I can handle a couple of unruly Vampire overlords. I mean, who do they think they are? The more I find out about them, the less respect I have."

"Um…"

"Too much power goes to anyone's head if they've got it long enough, and they've had it for thousands of years. They ought to be given a chance to change their scenery a bit, even if that change is the underworld."

"Wait, you believe in an underworld?"

"Yeah. I think that it's just as likely that people will die and enter some kind of judging process, a weighing of what we did while still alive as it is likely that we'll spend our post-death floating in nothingness."

"Um, alright. Suit yourself."

"Hey!" she smacked his knee. "I'm not crazy. I just think that there must be a reason for guilt, and a reason that we fear death."

"Whatever lets you sleep at night." He jibed, laughing softly when she surged to her feet and prepared to box his ears. Harry watched, clearly amused, and then started writing something. He covered it partially with his hand when he was done, holding it so that only Jasper could read it.

The vampire laughed, burying his face in Harry's hair, shoulders shaking. "Oh god, you're terrible!"

"What? What was on that piece of paper?" Luna demanded, hands on hips. She glared when Jasper only laughed harder, shaking his head.

She made a grab for it, and wrenched it out of Harry's hand before he could stop her. Uncrinkling it, she read out loud, "They used to call her 'loony' in school because she would always be saying stuff like that. One time she told Ron that his hair was blushing for him because he had a dirty mind, and that all redheads are very virile."

Jasper cracked up again, stuffing his face into Harry's arm pit this time. Harry just winked at her, writing down something new. When he held it up, it said, 'laughter is good for everyone'.

000

End chapter 32

I know that it is very short today, so I apologize before any of you smart-asses out there can shove that in my face.


	33. Chapter 33

CHAPTER 33

"Let's go!" Luna yelled, pumping her fist into the air and enthusiastically bouncing out the door. Harry followed much slower with Jasper bringing up the rear and trying to wrestle his heavy suitcase out of his hand.

"Harry, carrying this heavy thing is going to put strain on your muscles." Jasper argued, jerking on the handle and trying to get Harry to let go of it. "I don't want to take any risks; I want you healed as soon as possible."

The brunette rolled his eyes and just kept walking, and finally the Vampire gave up, grumbling, "Fine, be that way. Just don't ask me to ever do anything nice for you again after this, since I know that it won't be appreciated."

"Don't be so dramatic." Harry whispered, so softly that he was almost sure that he'd imagined hearing anything until Harry turned his head and winked at him. "Yeah, you heard me."

"Did he just talk?" Luna asked, stopping at the top of the stairs. She looked at him in wonder, reaching out and gently prodding his jaw. He winced and she mumbled, "Sorry."

"It's alright. I practiced talking last night, and I wanted to surprise you guys. I can't say much, though. It still hurts." He gripped the brace lightly, eyes squeezing shut while he swallowed with difficulty.

"Then shut up before you hurt yourself." Luna ordered, flouncing off down the stairs.

Shaking his head at her attitude, Jasper carefully wrapped an arm around Harry's shoulders and they followed her down the stairs.

The cab ride was short and uneventful outside of the Kenyan man driving it constantly chattering, though his voice was so cheerful that none of them minded him talking. Sometimes hearing someone happy to be alive is just what you want to hear when stuck in the backseat of a car.

"Here, keep the change." Luna handed over twice as much as they were owed, smiling brilliantly at their driver. He winked at her and said something in a language they couldn't understand before waving and driving off.

000

As they checked their tickets, the man behind the counter raised his eyebrows at Harry's neck brace. "Are you going to be able to handle this flight alright, son?" he asked politely, indicating with a polite head nod the obviously damaged condition his body was in.

Harry waved a hand. "I'll be fine." He whispered hoarsely.

She jabbed him in the ribs as they walked through the vast hallways to get to their flight waiting area. "What did I tell you about shutting up?" she griped. "Honestly! If you ever expect your vocal cords to heal, you've got to let them rest. Besides, I miss the quiet."

He chuckled and picked a seat between her and his boyfriend, allowing himself to slouch down in his seat so that he could rest his head on Jasper's shoulder. "Do you mind?" his voice was tired, so it was almost inaudible over the sounds of many feet traversing the plastic floors and rumbling machinery. In the background they could hear the low chatter of voices, a woman scolding her child, and the whine of a coffee grinder.

"Not at all." Jasper replied calmly, taking out a book from his carry-on and opening it to his marked spot. He rearranged it so that Harry could read as well, and Harry flicked a finger every time that he was done with a page since they didn't read at exactly the same pace. Jasper had tried to slow down, but he was too used to skimming using his abilities than reading at a human pace that it'd proved impossible. He didn't mind the suspense of waiting to turn the page, though. It was a nice change of pace and made the experience last longer.

He bent his head, forgetting his shyness about being affectionate in public, and kissed Harry lightly on the edge of his lips. Harry cooed at him like a dove and kissed him back. They were oblivious to the mixed reactions they were getting from those also waiting for their flight that happened to catch sight of them, including the man two seats down staring with an open mouth.

"God, you two make me sick." Luna teased, kicking Harry subtly when he started to deepen the kiss. "We're in public."

"Why shouldn't we have as much right to kiss as them?" Jasper demanded, separating himself reluctantly from the temptation of Harry's mouth and pointing out a teenaged couple caught in slightly more than a lip lock on the other side of the waiting area. The only disapproving look that they were getting was from an old man and his wife.

"You do have the right, but trying to force people to like it will only make it worse." Luna looked at them both seriously, and they could tell that she was being absolutely honest. "Shoving differences in people's faces never accomplishes anything good, no matter what it is. If you behave perfectly, then they will look like the assholes, not you."

"I suppose that you have a point." Jasper conceded, pretending to be upset about it. "But how much time do people need to wrap their heads around this? It's not like homosexuality is _new. _Hell, it's been an international fact of life for as long as we've had recorded history. Sure, it's not like we're 50% of the population, but we are a constant minority."

She shrugged. "Don't look at me, darling. It is natural to either fear what is different from yourself or attack it."

"So you're saying that it is permissible to let ourselves, despite being rational creatures, follow such unfair and barbaric instincts?" Jasper snapped, starting to get a little worked up. He wasn't used to the difficulties of being considered a social pariah, since years of being married to a woman and getting the acceptance that such a union normally receives had spoiled his perceptions.

"Not at all; what I am saying is that that is the normal reaction. The glory of being human, however, is that we can fight that part of ourselves. I mean, not too long ago and still in some places around the world today, slavery was considered to be common and acceptable. But we changed that." She stood when their numbers were called, helping up Harry. "All I'm saying is to give it time, to give them time. Grudges take a long time to fade."

"I can understand that." He hefted his bag and tucked the book back inside. "But that doesn't make me any happier to wait a couple hundred years until people can handle two people in love who happen to be the same gender."

She giggled, muffling it behind her palm. "I know, Jasper, I know. Just you wait. We both know that you've got an awful long time to burn, after all. You're the most qualified person to wait, I think."

"Hey, just because I'm immortal doesn't make…" he trailed off, stricken as an entirely new thought occurred to him. "Oh god, he's going to die someday."

Harry growled in protest, writing on his hand, 'not for a while'.

They handed their tickets to the lady behind the counter and she waved them down the passage to the plane.

"I know that, Harry, but someday you will pass on." Jasper stressed. "I…I don't know if I can handle that."

"Neither does anybody, and some can't, but I think that you'll recover." Luna patted his hand. "Death isn't something to be afraid of. Sure, when you two are separated, you will feel intensely lonely and will probably spend a considerable amount of time grieving, but you will recover." She chose the aisle seat to let Harry have the window and let Jasper sit next to him. "I don't mean to keep lauding the human race, but we can handle shock and loss very well. We bounce back."

"Can we talk about something else?" Jasper whimpered, pain stabbing through his eyes. He could feel Harry's stifled trepidation at the thought of dying, but also an overwhelming amount of glee. "Harry, why does the prospect of death excite you so?"

He handed the brunette a pen when he indicated that he wanted one, and waited while Harry bent over the paper, writing something out even as the plane prepared to take off. Luna fumbled with her carry-on, pulling out a book of her own and also her wallet. She stuffed some pounds into her bra, presumably to use to purchase liquor so that she wouldn't have to struggle with her wallet while inebriated.

Harry handed him the sheet when he was done, and turned to the window, supporting his chin in his hand. The clouds spread out across the window, and the scenery below them grew smaller and smaller, new patterns and city blocks showing themselves as the angle of the plane changed.

'There are many people that I loved who are dead now. Seeing them again will be a joy, and I know that, no matter how long you may live, you will someday find me again when we're both dead. Nothing will be able to come between us there.'

Jasper gently folded the note and tucked it into his breast pocket. He gazed at the back of Harry's head thoughtfully for a few moments and then reached across the arm rest to stroke his forearm lightly with the pads of his fingers. Harry shivered and turned his head to shoot him the biggest smile he'd yet managed since his injury.

No matter how short the years they would have together might seem as his long life stretched on, Jasper knew that he would always count them as the most precious. Starting tomorrow, he was going to steal Rosalie's good camera and start capturing Harry in all of the glory of his youth while it lasted.

By the time they landed, Luna was drunk enough to need Jasper's steadying hands more than Harry, who seemed to be getting into painful stitches of laughter just from the sight of her flirting clumsily with everyone she accidentally bumped into on her way off of the plane. When they reached the luggage claim, she had a handful of phone numbers from interested parties that she dithered about.

"Are you going to eat those for a snack or toss them like you should?" Jasper teased, guiding her to a seat and making sure that Harry had a good grip on her elbow before he let go.

"I…uh…" she stuttered, looking down at the handful of business cards and scraps of paper with something akin to wonder. "I'm sorry, what?" she looked up, blinking owlishly.

Jasper guffawed loudly and then felt his hair prickle with embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Luna, I didn't mean to laugh. I'll just go get the luggage."

"Damn straight." She slurred, reaching into her pocket at unceremoniously letting the paper bits fall to the ground. She pulled out a miniature bottle of tequila, and blinked when it promptly disappeared out of her hand. "Hey! What's the big idea?"

Harry just shook his head at her, stowing the bottle inside of his own jacket. "I don't think so, Luna."

His voice sounded smoother and healthier than it had earlier, so she smiled lazily at him. "You sound nice."

"Thanks." He smirked, tucking some of her frazzled hair back into her braid. "You look nice, even though you're drunk."

"Shut up. I'm not drunk. I'm tipsy- they're not the same thing!"

"Yes they are." Jasper butted into their conversation, stacking their luggage and sinking into the bench with them. "You only try to separate the two so that you can justify having another drink, and I can't in good conscience allow your girlfriend to see you in that state."

Luna's eyes went wide. "Bella! Oh my gosh!" she suddenly invaded Jasper's personal space and pleaded, her alcoholic breath fanning across his face, "Please, can you go buy me some strong coffee?"

"Why can't you get it yourself?" he pretended to grumble, reaching into his pocket and pulling out his wallet.

"Because I'm drunk!" she waved her arms. "And it wouldn't be proper of me."

"Neither is sitting around drunk in public, but I don't suppose that there's anything to be done for it." Jasper stood. "I'm going to get you some espresso, and I'm warning you, it will be very strong."

"I can take it." Luna bravely lifted her chin, but ruined the effect when her eyes rolled a little bit. "Ohh, I feel sick."

"Then go throw up in the bathroom. Harry, watch the luggage, please."

Harry waved a hand in acknowledgement, taking out the book.

000

Bella locked the door to her house since Charlie was still at work, and put the keys into her purse. Jasper had called her from the airport, asking for her to come pick them up since her car would have room in it for their luggage and Luna wanted to see her sooner rather than later.

There was a skip in her step and her eyes sparkled…until she turned around to descend the steps to her car and saw Edward leaning against it. She'd spent the time since his last visit with Jacob, and she'd almost forgotten about her ex.

"Yes?" She asked politely, deciding that she might as well be civil. She unlocked the door to her car, lightly nudging him to the side so that she could open the door and climb inside. "Yes, Edward?" she repeated. "Now isn't really a good time to for me. I'm about to go."

"I can see that." He said softly. "Bella…I…"

She sighed. "Edward, if it's serious, then please wait until I don't have somewhere urgent to be, and we'll try and discuss it like rational adults. I'll see you later."

With those parting words, she pulled out and sped off. She couldn't wait to see Luna and get some sanity back into her life.

000

End chapter 33

I'm going out of town for the weekend.


	34. Chapter 34

A/N: I have returned! After reviewing my notes for this story, I have decided that it will have, at the absolute most, ten more chapters, provided I remember to write the plot. I can get a bit carried away with the fluff.

CHAPTER 34

"Hello beautiful." Luna crooned when she saw Bella waiting outside her truck in the pick-up area of the airport. "It's lovely to be back."

Bella frowned, trying to put her finger on what felt off about the way Luna was acting. Her girlfriend swayed in place, eyes blinking as owlishly as ever. There was a large coffee cup in her hand, and she could tell that it was about half-empty, but that was the only thing that was outwardly different.

"Luna, are you alright?"

She shrugged. "I feel a bit dodgy, but I don't think that I'll start blowing chunks in your car or faint, so I wouldn't worry about it. Traveling takes the life out of me. This coffee is helping lots, though, so you can thank Jasper for being a love and buying it for me. This shit is expensive, you know." She waved the coffee, and the hot liquid sloshed against the sides.

Before Bella could say something in reply to that, Luna stepped forward and kissed her sweetly. The floodgates of loneliness that'd plagued her all weekend broke free and she nearly squeezed the life out of Luna, tilting her head and opening her mouth.

The boys shifted uncomfortably, Jasper going so far as to avert his eyes.

They broke apart, and Bella suddenly realized that they were not alone in her bedroom like she'd been imagining. Quickly, red-faced and –handed, she pulled her hand out from under Luna's shirt and took a step back from her.

Luna showed no reaction to this other than to casually flick Bella's ear with her finger, making the brunette jump with surprise. "Hey!"

She giggled and stuffed her bag in the back of the truck. "That's what you get for being a filthy tease. And for smelling like a man has been near you." she shook her head, braids swinging, and clucked her tongue at her. "I'm jealous. Who's been keeping you warm while I've been gone, eh?"

"N-No one!" Bella stuttered, sounding and looking guilty. Harry raised an eyebrow at her, crawling around her and slipping into the backseat of her truck. Jasper leaned in and actually sniffed her, eyebrows knitting when he caught a whiff of…

"Edward has been to see you." he stated.

"Who?" Luna asked, sauntering into the shotgun seat and getting comfortable. "Come on Bella, get in the car and tell me all about your long weekend. I want to know about your company."

Swallowing and knowing that she had no real choice in this, Bella circled the car and got behind the wheel. To tell the truth, she didn't understand why she felt guilty about Edward coming to see her. It wasn't like she'd done anything with him- hell, she hadn't even touched him! And yet a snake of uneasiness coiled through her intestines. She had no idea how Luna would react to this, and prayed that she wouldn't throw a fit.

"Who's Edward?" Luna asked again, eyes open although they were a little blurry. "Is he that one guy who you used to be seeing, or was his name Edgar?"

"No, Edward is my ex-boyfriend, and also Jasper's brother."

Luna hummed and nodded, turning the radio on and not bothering to adjust the channel when it turned out to be a rap station. It sounded strange being played so quietly, and in the rear-view mirror Bella could see a slow smile spreading across Harry's face. He winked at her when he caught her looking at him.

"Alright. Did he finally apologize for being such a prick to you?" Luna asked calmly, showing no signs of pitching any kind of witch fit. "I mean, the impression I got from what you said about him was that he was kind of a bastard."

Bella laughed, tension vanishing at Luna's bewildered assessment of Edward. "He _is _a bastard, but he seems to be sorry for what he did. He dropped by a few hours after you left, trying to win me back. I gave him the Icelandic treatment, and he seemed to get the message that I wanted him to back off. But just before I was leaving the house to come and fetch you, he popped back up out of nowhere and seemed to have something important to say."

The car coasted to a stop at a red light, and Bella took the sip of coffee that Luna offered, steeling herself to deliver her next piece of news. "He, uh, he wants to meet you; I think."

"You think or you know?" Luna asked, still looking calm as a cucumber. She'd stopped blinking though. "Oh, and I don't mind. Meeting him, I mean. If you want to be friends with him again, then I am fine with that. But so help me," a hint of a growl bloomed across her vocal cords then, and Bella shivered, "if he makes one move on you in my presence or if I hear about him trying to seduce you, I will tear his head off with my bare hands and sacrifice it to some Vampire-worshipping cult so that they can piss in his eye sockets and dissect him in a false hope of discovering immortality."

The truck was deadly silent for the remainder of the drive, no one wanting to be the next person to speak after that horrible mental image had been stamped across their internal retinas.

000

Jacob was waiting on the front steps of Bella's house when she pulled into the driveway, and he stiffened when the car door opened and expelled the scent of a Vampire. He had thought that he could smell some of their unnatural taint on Bella's property when he'd driven over here to wait for her, but dismissed it at the time as paranoia.

The blonde girl from McDonald's, Bella's girlfriend and his official competition, was sitting in the front seat. She waved when she saw him looking at him, her lips pulling up into a sleepy smile.

It was too adorable for him to keep frowning at, and he found himself smiling and waving back against his will. If she was Bella's 'special friend', then she was his friend too.

He stood and walked over to the truck under the pretense of greeting, although he was actually getting a better angle on the two guys sitting in the backseat, one of which had to be the source of the Vampire stench.

"Jake! Oh my god, how long have you been sitting out here in the rain?" Bella cried, stepping out of the truck and racing across the slippery driveway to rub at his goose-pimpled arms. Despite his wolf warmth, sitting for long enough in the damp could give anyone the chills. "You poor thing! Come on inside. The others are coming as well, right guys?" she called this over her shoulder, and Harry wagged a hand.

Jacob was confused by that strange gesture at first, but then he caught sight of the neck brace strapped around the brunette's throat.

"Whoa, what happened to you, man?" he asked, moving gently away from Bella to cautiously reach out a hand towards Harry. Harry shook it, smiling wanly.

"A big wolf got me." he replied hoarsely, immediately catching onto the hunted look that entered Jacob's eyes, the swift silent communication between him and Bella, and the rapid withdrawal of his hand. Jacob recovered admirably fast, though, and soon he was all sunshine once more.

"Seriously? That's freaky."

"Yeah; he came out of nowhere." Harry whispered, his voice fading. He cleared it before apologizing, "I'm sorry, my voice is very weak. My voice box was almost ripped out, and it's still recovering."

Jacob looked a little sick, but nodded. "It's fine. Why don't we all go inside before the rain starts coming down any harder?"

"Good idea, Jake." Bella complimented, helping Luna take her stuff indoors. "Jasper, will you make sure that Harry makes it up the steps okay?"

"Of course." He replied smoothly, drawing attention to himself. Jacob's eyes snapped to him, and he bared his teeth before he could think about it. Jasper didn't react other than to give Jacob a surprisingly pitying look.

As he passed by him, one arm wrapped around Harry and Harry's luggage in his other hand, he murmured, "I am sorry for your loss of stability, whatever has caused it. That isn't something that anybody should have to go through."

Jacob stared after him as he disappeared inside, stunned. He'd heard of Vampires having extra powers, and Bella once said something about Edward reading her mind, but this was creepier than he'd thought it would be. Shaking his head when he realized that he was feeling much friendlier towards the blonde that he wanted to rip apart with his claws simply because of what he was, he too went inside.

He was just in time to catch Bella and Luna lightly kissing each other's cheeks and giggling at each other. Looking away before he could think about why that hurt so much, he saw jasper tenderly helping Harry out of his coat, careful not to catch the clasps on the bandages peeking out from under the neck brace.

Harry smiled at the blonde, catching his hand and giving it a squeeze.

Jacob suddenly felt very single. Shaking it off, he toed off his shoes and wandered freely into Bella's kitchen.

"Hey, do you have any hot chocolate left?" he called out.

"Yeah, it's in the cabinet above the stove." Bella replied after tearing herself away from Luna and letting her take her things upstairs. They'd decided, while waiting for Jake to join them inside, to have Luna spend a couple of nights with Bella to catch up. It would make Charlie happy too, since he liked seeing Bella spend time with her friends, even though he did act weirdly around Luna.

She wondered, not for the first time, whether or not her father knew more than he let on about her relationship with Luna.

They boys, with the exception of Jacob who was making hot chocolate for everyone, were sitting nestled on the couch, Harry with his feet tucked under Jasper. She heard Jasper murmur, "You're so warm."

A flash of memory, of the first time she'd touched Edward's hand and discovered it to be colder than ice.

She sighed. "I'm glad that's over."

"You're glad what's over?" Luna asked, traipsing down the stairs to stand beside her. "Because I hate to break it to you, but the school year isn't over yet and neither is my visit."

Bella laughed and shook her head. "Never mind, babes. Go on in there and be a good guest, which means no peeping in my cupboards and drawers this time- I'm going to go help Jake for a couple of minutes."

"Okay." Luna's eyes were sharp above her dreamy smile, and she was secretly determined to prevent whatever it was that made Bella's eyes go distant sometimes from upsetting her any further.

In the kitchen, Bella's eyes went wide when she saw how tense Jake's spine was. Running the pads of her fingers down it and hoping to soothe him, she whispered, "What's wrong?"

His tanned hands were white where he was gripping the cast iron sauce pan, and she somehow knew that there would be finger indents when he let go of it.

"Jake?"

"I…I need to calm down." He hissed between clenched teeth. Looking up, he showed her the tortured struggle in his eyes.

"What's upsetting you like this?" she whispered, lowering her voice even further than it already was, just in case any of the guests were eavesdropping. She lightly touched his bulging arm, and he closed his eyes, leaning on her slightly. He was a lot heavier than she was expecting, and she would have buckled under his weight if she hadn't remembered to plant her feet instead of locking her knees.

"Sshh, whatever it is, it'll be fine." She crooned like a mother to a child with nightmares, petting his hair like she would pet a dog. "You don't have to tell me unless you want to, but telling me might take some weight off of your mind."

"He's one of _them." _Jake finally spoke. "And he's so close…all I want to do is transform and attack, but I know logically that that would be unprovoked and put so many things that I care about in danger…"

"Oh." Now she remembered him telling her something about Vampires and Quileutes being natural enemies, but this was a little more intense than she'd thought it would be. "Do you need to step outside and get some air? I'll cover for you."

He nodded against the top of her head and then timidly asked, "Can…can we stand here like this for a little longer, though?"

"Sure. Anytime you need to be held, just say so." She told him sincerely, tightening her hold around him. Considering how reasonable she was, she knew that Luna wouldn't mind her embracing her friend, who happened to have a crush on her.

In the living room, Jasper relaxed as the tension he could feel radiating from the kitchen begin to recede, retracting back into whatever dark place it'd sprung out of. If the wolf was willing to restrain himself, then so could Jasper.

000

End chapter 34


	35. Chapter 35

A/N: For those of you out there who share my purist values towards Vampires, I highly recommend watching or reading 'Let the Right One In'. It doesn't butcher the dignity of the undead with such things as _sparkles, _nor does it deny the possibility of them bursting into flames when exposed to sunlight.

CHAPTER 35

Edward didn't show his face for another week, and then he crept silently into Bella's kitchen while she was making noodle soup for dinner. She was so thoroughly engrossed in her task that she didn't notice his presence until he was forced to tap her shoulder.

"Ah!" she shrieked, jumping and loosing her grip on her ladle. A thick arc of boiling broth swooped as gracefully as a bird through the air. Edward seized her around the waist and whirled her out of its range just in time.

A few drops landed on her bare collarbone and she hissed. Rushing to the sink before he could, she wet the edge of her t-shirt and pulled it up slightly so that the cool edge could be pressed against the burns.

"Thanks." She said after a moment, remembering that he was responsible for her burns not being nearly as severe as they could have been. She glanced at the small puddle on the kitchen floor, glittering greasily in the lamp, and grimaced. "That would have hurt."

"Yes, I know." He nodded stiffly, hands held inertly at his sides. She noticed that his fists were clenched. "H-How are you?" he asked, looking as awkward as a twelve year old talking to his first crush.

She shrugged easily, feeling a lot more secure about being in his presence now that she knew that Luna didn't mind as long as he wasn't trying to win her back, which he wasn't at the moment. "I've been fairly well. I haven't been sick or upset about anything, if that's what you really want to know. How's Alice? I haven't seen her around here in a while and I kind of miss her."

"More than you miss me?" Edward asked bitterly. She flinched, surprised at the darkness in his words and expression. "I'm sorry." He apologized immediately, moving a step closer as if he was going to touch her. She retreated back a step, hastily pulling her shirt back down and smoothing it restlessly with her fingers.

"Don't." was all she said.

"Fine; I'm sorry." He repeated his apology, taking an extra step back. She didn't move, shoulders tense and eyes wary. "Look, Bella, I know that this is uncomfortable, considering….what we were to each other before."

"No, Edward, if you were simply my ex-boyfriend this wouldn't be nearly as uncomfortable. This is uncomfortable, and more than a little tense, because of everything that the end of our little liaison brought about. Namely, losing my best female friend and my surrogate mother without explanation or even a goodbye; this caused me to waste almost an entire fucking _year _of my life." She sighed, sliding her hands into her hair and gripping the delicate wisps that grew just by her ears. "I want to be friends with you, Edward, because I think that you could be a very interesting person to know platonically, but this friendship of ours has some very strict rules. If the rules are broken, then the friendship will have to end for both our sakes."

He retreated until he could lean, with crossed arms and ankles, against the stove. Almost lazily, he unfolded one hand and picked up the ladle, stirring the soup.

"So? What are the rules?"

Straightening, she said, "First of all, this is a friendship, black-and-white, not a gray area between a friendship and a relationship. You trying to win me back upset both Luna and I, so if you do it again, I will refuse to speak or see you."

"I understand. Please forgive me." He bent his head, looking so contrite that she almost forgot why she'd been so upset with him. But then he raised it and she caught the gleam of manipulation in his eye and her faith in him was shattered.

"Also, I do not trust you for many reasons. Not least of these is your once-frequent reminders to me that you find my blood to be particularly appetizing. If you try to attack me, whether in your right mind or out of it, I will do my best to kill you and I won't be sorry about it. It will take years of correct conduct from you to change that, and even then I wouldn't hold my breath. Consider your permanent residence to be the doghouse, if you want me to be blunt." She crossed the room and took the ladle from him, setting it aside and reaching around him for the paper towels, which she used to clean the floor. She let out a giggle when she remembered doing something very similar not too long ago while on the phone with Jacob. "Oh!"

"What is it?" he asked.

"Before I forget, I already know all about what's going on between your family and the Quileute tribe. I know one of the wolves, and I intend to remain friends with no matter what you think about it."

Edward's mouth dropped open. "What? My god, has he hurt you? Threatened you into being his friend?"

Bella laughed outright at him, sitting back on her haunches and throwing her head back. When she'd recovered herself, she sneered, "Don't be so arrogant, for fucks sakes. Jake and I have known each other since the time when we thought that eating pies made out of mud was a splendid idea, and a little thing like him turning into a wolf wasn't going to change my opinion of him." She snorted. "_Honestly. _If I could be alright dating a guy that wanted to drink my blood if we kissed for too long, then I can be friends with a wolf-man."

"Well, when you put it that way…" Edward forced a smirk, hoping that she would buy it. She didn't. He didn't know when Bella had gotten so perceptive, but she didn't believe in any of his usual tricks these days. "In answer to your question a while back, Alice is doing well. She hasn't been able to find time to come visit for a couple of days because Esme started up a soup kitchen in Berlin, Germany, and Alice is still making some arrangements with it."

"Oh? How nice." Bella smiled, standing and disposing of the soiled towels. She once again lifted the ladle and dipped it into the broth, scraping it across the bottom of the pot to ensure that none of the noodles had affixed themselves there and been burned into place. There weren't any, and she started to hum.

Neither of them spoke for the remainder of his visit, which lasted until he could hear her father's car coming down the street. He slipped out the back door like a thief, leaving Bella to shake her head in mingled disgust and admiration at his sneakiness.

It was probably for the best that Charlie didn't find out about her rekindled acquaintance with Edward. She picked up the phone and dialed Luna's number.

000

Jake paced his bedroom, what little of it that there was room to pace in anyway, and wrung his hands like a crazy person.

There were Vampires, not Cullen ones either, wandering in the woods. Just this morning another attack had been reported in the paper, which would make this hiker number eight of those who'd died to slate the thirst of the attackers infesting the woods.

He wanted to fight them so badly, but he wanted even more to find out what that thing was that had killed the dead Vampire in that clearing. He'd returned to the spot several times, even thought the rain had long since washed away any clues or scents that might have helped him solve the puzzle. Whatever it was, it hadn't killed any of the other Vampires or hikers, or even approached his pack, but he wasn't stupid. Something like that, a new kind of predator, wouldn't stay dormant for long and the sooner he figured out what it was, the sooner he could sedate it and keep everyone else safe.

He'd been about to share the information with his pack before they'd banished him, and the longer he was separated from them, the less he felt that they were necessary. Sure, most of them had been his friends before the transformation, but their willingness to listen to Sam instead of him and continued social shunning of him made him wonder if they'd ever been friends at all.

The bedsprings creaked when he sat almost violently down, and he grabbed his pillow, hugging it to his chest like a stuffed animal. He wished Bella were here, so that he could at least get this off of his chest, but he didn't want to worry her.

If nobody else was going to try and find this thing or do their proper part in defending the forest, then he would do it alone. Despite his bravado and much-overblown leadership skills, Sam Uley really wasn't the brightest pea in the strategy pod. His patrol patterns were weak and left large gaps that any Vampire could easily slip through, and he hadn't been very diligent in training them in fighting. If they were attacked by a Vampire, most of his pack wouldn't know what to do.

His decision made, Jake stood up and punched his pillow back into shape before putting it back at the head of his bed. He took off his shirt, shook it out, and dropped it in his empty laundry hamper and kicked off his shoes. Wearing only a pair of jean shorts that he would discard as soon as he was safely in the woods, he descended the stairs.

Downstairs, he made sure that there was food for his dad to eat before he wrote a note saying that he was taking a walk and might be a while.

He took a deep breath and then went outside, the screen door slamming behind him. He winced and resolved to fix the springs this Saturday.

The woods provided a little shelter from the rain, but burdened leaves unexpectedly released their burdens of freezing water onto his head from time to time. Happy to not worry about shivering just yet, he shucked off his shorts and was about to transform when he heard a muffled laugh from behind a bush. Turning redder than a geranium, he covered himself with his hands and looked wildly around.

"Honey, I'd put those shorts back on if I were you." Someone snickered from the bush behind him, so he did as they advised and slithered into his pants as fast as he could.

"Okay, I'm decent, now show yourself." He laughed a little, amused at the situation as well even though it was embarrassing.

Luna, Bella's girlfriend, tumbled out of a bush and grinned at him. "Nice day today, isn't it?" she asked casually, as if they'd just happened across each other at the damn supermarket. He raised his eyebrows.

"Won't Bella have a problem with you staring at other guys' junk?" He asked candidly, deciding to be straight with this girl. She glanced at his crotch and raised an eyebrow.

"Not really, no. and if she does, that's fine. I won't do it again, although I didn't really have a choice this time. I was taking a piss, and the next thing I know some dude is taking his shorts off a couple of feet from my face. What's a girl to do, I ask you? Close her eyes like a virgin?" Luna shrugged. "I've got to say that you've got me curious though."

She flipped the end of the large pink scarf wrapped around her head and shoulders over her shoulder. The sash crisscrossed over her breasts, the tassels waving in the breeze. There were large roses stamped across it, and he found the whole thing more than a little eye-catching. It might look ridiculous on anyone else, but Luna wore it like a queen.

"Well?" she probed after a minute, going so far as to prod his bare ribs with one sharp little finger. "What are you doing trolling the woods naked, eh?"

"I….I like the fresh air; it's not like that's illegal." He said lamely, feeling like a huge dork. Against his will, he found himself looking at her breasts again. "There normally isn't anybody hiding in the bushes watching me like a pervert."

Luna sighed. "Fine, don't tell me. I'll tell you what," she put her hands on her head and cocked her head, sizing him up. "Since you were taking a walk and so was I, why don't we walk together? I'm afraid that you'll be forced to keep your clothes on, since I don't want to be tempted to cheat on Bella with my eyes, but I'll it worth your while."

"That sounds…nice, actually." His zeal to single-handedly take down the Vampires was fading now anyway, so he might as well get to know his competition better. "But I want to know how you plan on making this worth keeping my clothes on."

She silently reached into her purse and revealed a bag of chips and what looked like sandwiches wrapped in plastic.

"Oh my god, you know me too well." He groaned, reaching out and taking the larger sandwich.

"It gets better." Luna gloated, stuffing a napkin into his pocket when she saw the bits of bread crumbs and lettuce gathering at the edges of his mouth. "I have hot chocolate in a thermos."

Around a mouthful of sandwich, he moaned, "You're my hero."

000

They'd been walking for over an hour, and there was just a mouthful of hot chocolate left, when Jacob went absolutely still and started sniffing the air like a dog.

Luna's face tightened and she dropped her wand into her palm. Carefully taking off her purse, while taking a moment to remove her revolver, and a stake, both of which she slipped into the special folds of her scarf. It didn't look like it, but her scarf was capable of hiding many useful things.

She left her purse leaning a tree and vanished from Jake's sight before he even realized that she was gone. Slipping silently through the trees, keeping to the shadows the trunks cast and splattering water on herself to cloak her scent whenever she had the chance, Luna moved rapidly towards the source of malignant life that she could feel in her magical core.

There! In the tree a couple of feet from her, a young man was sitting in the lower branches of a fir tree and waiting for a grazing deer to come closer. Hefting her wand, she raised it and shot a stunning spell at the man.

He toppled out of the tree like a rag doll, and she raced across the distance separating them, casting a modified binding charm as she went. Stunners didn't always last as long as they should have on Vampires, so it was never smart to let them alone for long. The modified charm tied him in duct tape instead of ropes or chains, both of which were easier for Vampires to handle. Duct tape, on the other hand, was sticky and far more difficult to tear.

She dragged the inert body over to a tree, already aware of Jacob approaching, and cast the spell again to tie the body to the trunk of the tree. She took a second to collect herself and make sure that her wand was hidden before she touched her fingertip to his forehead and revived him.

Blood-colored eyes, crazed with hunger and the glory of new-birth opened and met hers. He at first snapped his teeth at her playfully, and then he realized that she was the one with the revolver in hand and he was tied to the tree.

"Oh, please don't-"

Her hand slapped across his face. Sure, it wouldn't hurt him, but it would shock him a little bit, just knowing that she could touch if she chose to.

"Shut up, you little shit." She hissed like a snake. "Now, you have two options, and I'm only going to say them once so _pay attention."_

"Yes ma'am." He squeaked.

"Good." she smiled unpleasantly. "Where was I? Oh yes. The options that I am so generously giving you; most people in my position would just kill you without giving you a chance, you know. Option number one is just that, actually, except that it won't be just a quick shot to the head like you're thinking. No, I will make sure that it lasts days, maybe even weeks, and that you beg for death by the time that I'm finished with you. Option number two is that you chose to cooperate with me and tell me everything that I want to know, truthfully. And if you do that, I won't kill you but rather take you to a nice group of people that will help you wean yourself off of human blood. You'd have a nice life with them, and maybe find a girlfriend some day."

His eyes widened with pleasure and her smile softened.

"I think that we both know which option you're going to take…I'm sorry, I don't know your name."

He cleared his throat before answering, which dislodged a clot of blood. It squeezed out of the corner of his mouth, and his tongue flicked out to swallow it. "It's Franz, and I will tell you anything and everything that you want."

"Good. I'm so glad that we understand each other." Luna crooned, stroking his cheek. Behind her, the bushes rustled and Jake emerged, snarling. He stopped abruptly when he saw that she had a gun, and that the Vampire he'd smelled was tied to a tree, and with duct tape, no less.

"Ah, Jacob, thank you for joining me. Franz, this is my associate Jacob. You will also answer any questions that he might have about your fellow Vampires." She crooked her finger at him and, helpless to disobey, he trotted obediently over.

"Now Franz, tell me, who turned you?"

"V-Victoria. I don't know her last name. She's a tall woman, though, with bright red hair. You can't miss her in a crowd, that's for sure." Franz laughed nervously.

"Excellent. And where is this Victoria?"

"She's about a hundred miles from here, in a cave with the others. They're plotting to attack the day after tomorrow, and I overheard that she intended to turn about a dozen more of us before then to help flesh out her troops."

Jacob closed his eyes. That was so many. They would be overwhelmed at this rate, and he knew that the pack wouldn't listen to his warnings as long as Sam was their alpha. His eyes opened again as an idea started to form in the back of his mind.

What if Sam _wasn't _their alpha anymore?

000

End chapter 35


	36. Chapter 36

CHAPTER 36

Bella hung up with a sigh. According to Harry, Luna had gone off in the woods alone today. He also told her not to worry about her since she was the sort of girl that could defend herself against a hurricane.

But she was worried anyway, and hurriedly pulled on some boots and her thicker raincoat to go find her. She couldn't explain the urge, but whenever she was around Edward she longed to be with Luna, to reaffirm that she was loved.

She locked up behind her, stuffed the keys into her pocket, and started walking.

000

Luna finished questioning Franz, and stepped to the side to let Jacob ask anything that she might have overlooked, as unlikely as that was.

"Um, have you come into any contact with my kind?" Jake asked, not really paying too much attention. His mind was wrapped up in his latest situation, twisting this way and that as it tried to find another way to gather the wolves together under intelligent guidance, other than to lead them himself.

"Not that I remember."

Jacob nodded absently, and then he gathered himself enough to remember something that Luna had said while offering the options.

"Wait, where are you going to take him?" He asked Luna, bewildered. "You can't mean the Cullens, can you?"

"Not specifically, no." her eyes were distant and hazy with thought. "I know that this might be hard for you to believe, since you are obviously not too fond of Vampires for whatever reason, but there are various little tribes of them up in Alaska that refuse to feed off of humans." She snorted. "It turns out that it's not necessary for the blood to be human to provide proper nourishment, and the Cullens are not the only ones willing to live without it."

"So…you're just going to dump him with these people and hope that it works out?"

"Basically, yes. And if they tear him limb from limb, then it's not my problem. I tried, and he should be fortunate to not have been killed sooner."

Franz choked and she kicked him in the shin without looking.

000

The pack was gathered at Sam's house, which was convenient since it saved Jacob the time of calling all of them manually or tracking them down in case they were actually doing their badly organized patrols. Half the time they didn't even go where they were supposed to, much less take their jobs seriously. Considering that they were just a group of mostly teenaged boys unused to responsibility, this shouldn't be surprising. It was still dangerous, though.

He was greeted with mixed reactions. Some of the boys looked like they wanted to smile at him but were to afraid to, and others outright glared. He bared his teeth and muscled his way past Sam, who was just starting to block his path, and stood in the center of the small living room.

"First of all, before any of you get the wrong idea, I am not here to try and get back into the pack."

"Good, because I have consulted with the pack and we've decided to banish you permanently, even if you do beg to be allowed back." Sam broke in, eyes filled with hatred.

"Fuck you." Jacob snapped. "Anyways, I have some crucial information to share with all of you, and I'm only telling you because some of you used to be my friends." He glared at Quil and Embry as he said this. "The name of the Vampire behind the breaches in our defenses is a woman named Victoria, who is roughly 100 miles from here in a cave, busy indoctrinating her new Vampires. Right now she is raising a small army, one that will easily overwhelm our pack in its current condition. Is everybody getting this so far?"

Dead silence was the only reply he got. Even Sam looked shocked.

"Okay, my plan is that those of you that want to have a fighting chance are to come with me, and I will teach you how to fight the way I do." His eyes swept the room, taking in the reactions that this was getting.

Tentatively, Embry raised his hand. Sam indicated that he could speak.

"Um, how are you going to order us around or communicate with us if you're not in our pack anymore?"

"I was just waiting for you to ask." He smiled nastily. "If you want to learn, you have to join _my _pack."

Sam choked, looking so angry that his skin was purple. "That is out of the question! You do not have the strength or the maturity to lead a pack!"

"Oh yeah? And who died and put you in charge? That's right, my ancestor, which gives me just as much right to being an alpha as you. Now, whoever wants to join, stand up! Keep in mind that the sooner you choose whose side you're on, the sooner I can begin training you, which will make all the difference when its time to face Victoria and her people."

No one moved for a moment, and Sam began to smile. "You see, Jacob, they know what's good for them and have decided to do the smart thing and follow me. Other than your lineage, you have no proof of your ability to be an alpha."

His eyes narrowed and he let loose a growl. He needed to make this plan work, or they would all die! He decided to appeal to Sam's arrogance. "Okay tough guy, how about a little contest to prove which of us is the better man?"

"Explain what you mean." Sam demanded.

"I mean that you and I should have a match, and whichever one of us manages to either stun or pin the other for at least five seconds wins, and will become the new alpha."

The alpha rubbed his chin, considering. He looked Jacob up and down, factoring in his larger size and skill, but also his youth and impetuousness. After a few moments, he nodded. "It's a deal. We'll meet in the usual place on the cliffs in half an hour."

"I'll see you there. Everybody, please think carefully about how you're going to hold off an army of Vampires as you are now before making any quick decisions, okay?"

Some of them nodded, while others refused to make eye contact. He sighed and turned to leave. Before he was out the door, though, Embry had stood and put his hand on his shoulder. When he turned his head to ask what he wanted, Embry beat him to the punch.

"I'll come with you to help you warm up." Was all he said, a nervous little smile hovering around the corners of his mouth.

Jacob nodded and continued walking. Embry had to skip a little bit to keep up with his punishing pace.

He was smart enough to wait until they were almost to Jacob's house to speak up.

"Look, man, I am really sorry for not calling-"

"You're sorry for ignoring our friendship and making me feel like shit just because you were too jelly-kneed to stick up against Sam? Well, sorry, but you're not forgiven yet."

Embry sighed. "That's fine. I don't deserve to be forgiven yet anyways. I just…I just wanted you to know, that's all."

He waited until they were in his room to reply. "Embry, I've known you for forever, and I understand how hard it was for you to even come here with me now. so, you're on your way to being forgiven. But don't get cocky!"

Embry held up his hands, daring to grin a little. "Okay, okay. Hey, how are things going with Bella? I saw you guys taking a walk on the beach together a while ago, and she's been over here a couple of times. Are you guys together now or what?"

Jacob sat down on his bed and drained the glass of water he always kept on the floor next to it in one gulp, throat muscles convulsing from the strain of swallowing that much liquid all at once. He put the glass down firmly, leaned forward, and put his hands on his knees.

"No."

He raised an eyebrow, not quite believing him. "Really? Somehow I think there's more going on than you're telling me. Is she still leading you on?"

"No, but I almost wish she was. She's seeing someone again, and it's not the Cullen asshole either. I…I can't hate this new person, and that bothers me. I don't want to give up on her, even though I know that it will save me a lot of pain if I do."

"Well, shit. Who is she dating? Do we know him?" Embry sat down next to him, handing him some more water from his own backpack.

"You don't know him that well." He took a deep breath. "Actually, it's not even a 'he'."

Embry paused, frowning. "What do you mean…" he trailed off. "Oh. _Oh."_

"Yeah."

"Fuck. When did this happen? I know that Cullen guy would probably mess her up, but I didn't think that it would be this bad. I mean, Bella a _lesbian? _I just never would have seen that one coming, not in a million years."

"I know, I know." Jacob nodded, pulling off his shirt. He worked on his shoes next, unlacing them and pulling off his socks. "But this girl makes her really happy, and I don't want to screw that up. She's still the same person; the only thing that's changed is that she's a lot more open now, and she swears now."

"This is just too weird." Embry stated. When he saw that Jacob was ready, wearing only his jean shorts and breathing deeply and evenly, he smiled tensely. "I really hope that you beat Sam."

"Me too. He's a shitty alpha, and I love you guys too much to just stand back and let you get beat by a Vampire bitch."

000

Bella walked for an hour in the woods without finding Luna and began to feel depressed at her failure. True, the odds of actually crossing paths with the blonde weren't high, but she'd been hoping so badly that she would find her that she'd forgotten about that.

"Fuck this." She grumbled, plopping down on the nearest semi-dry patch of dirt to rest for a little bit. After a couple of minutes, during which she shredded several leaves unfortunate enough to have fallen nearby into tiny pieces, it occurred to her to just go visit with Jacob. Even if he wasn't home, she could help Billy out with some chores.

Her plan decided upon, she stood up and checked her compass to see what direction she would need to walk to get to the Reservation.

000

Harry was just coming out of the shower when Jasper burst into the bathroom and grabbed him, stuffing him back inside the shower and coming in after him. His hair was wild and his fangs were out, both of which were very bad signs.

When no explanation was forthcoming, Harry ventured, "Um, honey, what are you doing in here? I'm getting kind of cold."

"Ssh." Jasper put his hand over his mouth. "I smell a foreign Vampire approaching, accompanied by Luna's smell. She might have been kidnapped and forced to lead her attacker back to us."

Harry's eyes widened, and then he began to struggle against the hold that Jasper had on him. Frustrated when he couldn't make much progress, he bit down on the hand covering his mouth. Jasper immediately let go, too shocked to notice his slip-up.

"Jasper let me go! I need to get my wand!"

Jasper gasped. "I forgot. I'll go get it for you. where did you leave it?"

"it's on my night stand." Harry whispered back, shooing him away. "Hurry up; they'll be here soon."

He nodded and dashed out of the bathroom, slipping a little bit on the water gathering in little puddles on the tiled floor from Harry's wet body. Shivering and left alone for now, Harry reached outside of the plastic curtain for a towel but Jasper returned before he could get a grip on one and once again had him pressed against the shower wall, shielding him with his body in case of a sudden attack.

He handed Harry his wand with a tight smile. "here you go."

"Thanks." Harry slipped it behind his ear.

They waited, harry shifting his weight, trying to get comfortable in his position stuck between a cold clammy tiled wall and his boyfriend's cold hard chest. He soon gave up, finding no respite from the discomfort.

The bathroom door finally opened, and Harry fired a blasting curse without a second thought. The door shattered, the person on the other side having the reflexes to slam it shut before the curse could hit them. His eyes narrowed and he prepared to fire another one when Luna's voice chirped,

"Harry, calm down! It's just me and a friend."

"Oh." Harry mumbled, lowering his wand. He was suddenly a lot more aware of the fact that he was naked now that his adrenaline rush was fading, and that Jasper felt a lot firmer than usual. He looked up, and saw that the Vampire was biting his lip and averting his eyes.

If he'd been human, his face would have been quite red.

000

End chapter 36

Sheesh, everybody is seeing everybody else naked in this story. I feel like such a pervert.

.

.


	37. Chapter 37

CHAPTER 37

"Billy?" She rapped on the screen door, turning her head to see inside. There weren't any lights on, so she wasn't sure if there was anyone home. Just as she was giving up hope, Billy wheeled into sight, rubbing sleep out of his eyes with one hand.

"Oh, shit, did I wake you up?" Embarrassed now, Bella pulled her hair out of her eyes. "I am so sorry, Billy. I thought you would be awake watching the game."

"Don't worry about it." He smiled at her. "You were right; I was going to watch the game, but then it turned out to be one of those lazy afternoons that make you feel like you're wrapped in a blanket, and I was nodding off so I just went to take a little nap."

"Well, I'm still sorry to have disturbed you." she stepped inside now that he was inviting her inside. "I was actually stopping by to see if Jake was here or if you needed any help with any projects around the house."

He frowned, thinking. "No, I don't think there is anything here that is anymore broken than usual."

They shared a laugh.

"Also, I'm afraid that you just missed Jacob. He was here about five minutes ago with Embry, and I overheard them saying something about going to the cliffs for some guy thing. If you're looking for him, that's probably where he'll be for the next couple of hours, at least until it gets dark."

She bit her lip. "Would…would he mind if I joined them? Would that be weird?"

He shook his head. "No, he'll probably be overjoyed to see you. He's probably just doing some cliff diving with Quil and Embry, and we both know that those boys don't mind having a girl around."

That startled a giggle out of her. Shaking her head, she scolded, "I hope that you aren't encouraging them."

"I try not to, but young men are very hard to suppress in some areas." He winked, and she winked back just for fun.

"Alright, well, I promise to leave now so that you can get back to your nap. Have a nice afternoon, Billy!"

"You too, Bella." He smiled and waved goodbye, watching her as she descended the steps and walked out of his line of sight. For a moment he contemplated what things would have been like if he was he was Jacob's age and things were less complicated.

And then the moment passed and he slapped his own cheek.

"Don't be crazy, old man." he wheeled back to his room, feeling wistful even as he levered himself out of his chair and into bed. He managed to bang his ankle against the leg of the bed, but shrugged it off.

A creeping sense that there was more than cliff diving going on this afternoon nagged at him, but he swatted it away as easily as a fly, dismissing it as the paranoia of an aging man.

000

Bella was happy for the walk, which had a broader range of scenery than the woods. Glimpses of the beach or little creeks leading down to it popped up along the way, and she contemplated how much she enjoyed the sounds of running water.

Water is incredible if you think about it. Endlessly recycled, endlessly changing. You never knew what the last thing something you were drinking had been used for; the next time you washed dishes, you could be using the same water, filtered by then, that some king had bathed his hairy body in.

She grinned at the thought, consequently not paying attention to where she was stepping. A tree root tripped her, and she scraped her knee. Dark red bloomed across the knee of her jeans, and it stung. She cradled it against her chest, head bent like she used to do when she was child.

"Ow…"

When it didn't hurt as much and the shock of injury was sufficiently faded to her tastes, she stood and cautiously put pressure on the injured joint. A baby stab of pain was the only retribution for the move, and her smile returned.

All was right with the world once again.

After about ten more minutes of brisk walking, since she didn't like to waste time and dawdle when she was traveling, the roar of the water deepened into something that vibrated through her bones. She was getting closer-

A howling noise ripped through the air and her pupils shrank with fear. She didn't know how far away it was, but she knew that there was something wild out there with her now, and she also knew that the closest other human beings (in a manner of speaking) were on the cliffs.

She broke into a run, one hand going into her backpack to make sure that she'd remembered to bring the pepper spray that Charlie gifted her with so long ago to defend herself with from hooligans. When he'd bought it, he probably didn't even consider the possibility that she might have to use it on a blood-thirsty creature some day.

Her fingers closed around it, and she pulled the little canister disguised to look like a bulky pen out and stuffed it down the front of her shirt. The zipper from her raincoat nipped at her fingers like little teeth when she tried to retract her hand too quickly, and she yipped, startled at the pain.

The cliffs rose into sight, and she could see some figures on top of them.

Coming closer, she perceived that they weren't quite right. There was something off about…

And then, feeling a little sick despite her determination to be understanding about this, she saw that what was wrong with the figures was that they weren't upright humans, but rather massive four-legged wolves.

Two of them, one of them nearly the size of her truck, were fighting.

She stopped running abruptly, picking her way with care up the cliffs. Rationally, she knew that this was a bad idea, since moving _away _from conflict is the universally more intelligent choice, but she was too curious to walk away from this. She wanted to see what Jacob's people were like.

Thankfully, there were some big boulders scattered at the top of the cliffs and so it was a mere matter of picking which one to hide behind instead of a complex squatting procedure known as 'if I make myself as small as possible, maybe they won't see me' technique.

Taking a peek over the top, she caught the smaller one, which had nicer fur, rushing the bigger one. It feinted to the side at the last minute, but the big one wasn't fooled and snapped its jaws around the smaller one's thigh. There was a popping noise as the limb was dislocated, and she winced in sympathy. That had to hurt, a _lot_.

From what she could tell, the big one was holding back. And winning; definitely winning.

Making a remarkable recovery, the smaller one leapt on top of the russet-colored one's back and sank its teeth into his neck, shaking its head back and forth while trying to tear out a mouthful.

Bella couldn't watch, so she hid her face back behind the rock again and waited until the wet sounds stopped. Holding her breath, she looked again and saw that the big one had thrown its attacker somehow and was pinning it with its weight.

Thrashing limbs were all that she could see of the other one, sticking out comically out from under the bigger one's bulk, and when some time had passed, it eased off.

She tilted her head. That was almost like a wrestling match, and suddenly the shapes of the wolves were shifting, twisting like smoke and forming into young men.

_Naked _young men, some of which she knew. Except that they'd been wearing clothes at the time, which made everything a lot less awkward and-

Oh shit.

As one, like they shared the same brain, they turned to look at her boulder. She'd been spotted. Rising slowly, knowing that there was no way that she could sneak off without them seeing her and figuring out who she was, she slowly stood, one hand covering her eyes. Sure, it might be a dream come true for girls like Jessica Stanley to be alone with a crowd of attentive boys, naked ones too, but it wasn't the sort of thing that she found amusing.

"Um, hi." She squeaked. "Listen, I didn't mean to, you know, watch your little sports match. I swear not to tell anybody. We can just put this behind us and never even think about it again."

There was a weird noise, and then she recognized it as a bunch of people trying not to laugh.

"Hey! Don't make fun of me; I'm trying to be sensitive here!" she snapped. "Ungrateful brats."

Someone put a big hand on her shoulder, and Jacob's voice said, "We've got our pants back on, Bella. You can open your eyes and not get blinded."

She dropped her hand and squinted, making sure from the blurred images that they really were dressed before she opened her eyes fully. Jacob was grinning down at her, a big bite mark on the back of his neck slowly sealing, leaving a few drops of blood oozing down his collarbone. It was more than a little macabre.

"Thanks for the heads-up." She looked around, and then addressed the entire pack casually with, "That was quite the spectacle. So…which one of you was the big one and which was the small one?"

Sam Uley turned his back without explanation and stalked down one of the narrow paths that led up to the cliffs.

"Well gee, what crawled up his ass and died?" Bella asked caustically.

Jacob raised an eyebrow and looked at Embry with an 'I-told-you-so' face. Embry's mouth was open.

Before she could ask what that look was for, a roar from behind her exploded across her eardrums. It didn't sound like something the wolves could have made, since it looked like all of them were there. Jacob leapt into action, grabbing her by the waist and tossing her into Embry's arms and snapping at him to take her somewhere safe.

In the sudden pandemonium, she became aware of the chill of Vampires. She twisted her neck around, trying to see, and caught a flash of Victoria's tell-tale flaming hair.

Embry was hit by a young Vampire, and dropped her. She sprang away from the body, knowing that it would look cowardly but was really the only thing that she could do at that point. Her mind raced, reviewing the information that she knew about Vampires and how people behaved in books when there was a bad situation.

Her scents… water… the cliffs.

Without giving herself time to connect the ideas, she threw herself off the top of the cliff, feeling something freezing grab hold of her toes. Thanks to the rubber toe of her shoe, she slipped out of the grip of whichever Vampire was trying to catch her and fell. And fell…

000

End chapter 37

Sorry that it's short, but I was working a long day today and am worn out. I will also be working all day tomorrow, for almost 12 hours, so I'll be dead beat; don't give up hope, though! I've written under worse conditions.


	38. Chapter 38

CHAPTER 38

The air seemed to burn her as she soared through it, and at the last minute she remembered to loosen her muscles so that she wouldn't break all of her bones if she landed on the water wrong.

A wave rose to meet her, and she welcomed it by diving deep inside. The connection with the water was freezing and bruising, and now that she was submerged, it felt as those thousands of little hands were pulling her this way and that. Panicking, blind and unable to confirm or deny the hands as creature or element, she kicked and struggled against the water instead of letting it carry her to shore.

She waged war against the water for as long as she could, and then her muscles failed her and her limbs no longer complied with her orders.

Limp and heavy-headed from lack of steady oxygen, she was tossed back and forth for a little more, but steadily in one direction: land.

Meanwhile, atop the hill, Sam was grappling with a tall young Vampire, and looked to be winning. However, two more were sitting peacefully nearby, just biding their time before they were needed to back up their comrade.

The odds were similarly placed amongst the wolves and the Vampires. Approximately half of the Vampires were dead now, since many of them were too young to even understand how to move their limbs properly and therefore couldn't even be called opponents.

Their deaths were more of a tragedy than a victory.

Jacob was wrapped around the redheaded woman who seemed to be their leader, whose hands he'd just barely kept from grabbing hold of Bella before she fell to what his heart told him must be certain death. He felt like he was floating alongside his body, processing what went on around him but unable to feel anything.

Bella was dead, so there was no point for him to exist anymore. However, his pack, since they were his now that Sam had lost their fight, relied on him for morale so he fought bravely. His teeth grazed Victoria's cheek at last and she shrieked, swinging out at him and landing a solid hit to his ribs. Something cracked, and he fell to his knees.

Not willing to go down easy, he snapped his jaws around her calf and dragged her under him, laying all of his considerable weight on top of her, crushing her. He could feel the vibrations of her screams beneath him as her bones cracked and crumbled, but he hardened his features. Showing pity for a woman like her would be very foolish.

Two of her minions pounced on him, and out of the corner of his eye he could see Quil's fur flashing in the gray sunlight as he twisted and writhed in pain.

They were losing, badly. The attack had come so much sooner than they'd been prepared for, and he was afraid to even think of what would become of the people the Quileutes had been protecting for centuries if the Vampires ravaged their village.

Would they spare anyone's lives, or simply feed to their heart's content, keeping the humans like cattle and slaughtering them as they had need?

Tears glittered across his eyes, and his soul sank back inside of his body. Pain lanced through him, but he gritted his jaws and snapped them at the closer Vampire about to bite him, snapping her neck like a twig. She went limp, and then crumbled like dust.

Beneath him, he could feel Victoria's body doing the same. There was one more attacker, who seemed to be older than the inexperienced others, and much deadlier in his attacks.

Quil's body was no longer moving out of the corner of his eye, and he felt nauseous when he saw one of the Vampires cautiously poking him, nose snuffling. He let out a roar that could be heard for miles and reared up, knocking the Vampire back and head-butting him.

The Vampire went flying into a boulder, where a jutting spike of rock skewered his chest. He turned to dust, screaming curses until his voice faded away to nothing. Stunned a little at how graphic that sight had been, Jacob shook his head and got back to fighting.

He could see, here and there, wolves that were either injured or dead but forced himself not to think about their families or his memories of them. He concentrated entirely on wiping out the remainder of the Vampires.

Two of the young Vampires escaped into the woods, but he was too busy to go after them. He would worry about them after he'd killed everyone else in sight.

000

"So, uh, you're going to escort him now or later?" Harry indicated Franz, shifting closer to Jasper and crossing his legs. He still hadn't quite recovered from having not only Luna but his boyfriend and some guy he didn't even know see him naked.

He was wearing long trousers and a long-sleeved shirt, a strange instinct telling him that maybe he could erase his earlier exposure by covering extra later.

It wasn't working. Jasper was still breathing a little bit strangely and keeping the hem of his shirt lower than usual. He was also doing this weird thing with his eyes, where he would by turns stare shamelessly at Harry and then he avoided his eyes like a virgin.

It was very frustrating to experience, since Harry knew that Jasper had no intention of actually acting on what he was positive they were both thinking about.

Luna shrugged. "I haven't decided yet. Actually, I was kind of hoping that you would come with me Jasper, to show me the way and introduce us. It would be stupid of me to just barge in on a bunch of people that I don't know and dumping this poor lad on their shoulders like an unwanted prom baby."

Harry winced at the mental image that rose behind his eyelids, and recovered by sniping, "Oh, and you would know all about unwanted prom babies, of course."

Luna kicked him with a straight face. "Fuck off. Anyways, will you, Jasper? I'll pay for your plane ticket and everything."

He nodded. "Sure, of course. And you don't have to pay for my plane ticket- that would make me feel like a prostitute."

She cackled. "Nice one."

Someone knocked on the door, and Jasper straightened. His hand snapped out and grabbed Luna's arm, stopping her from getting the door. She gave him a curious look, but he shook his head.

Alone on his couch, Franz stiffened and a whimper escaped from his throat. Luna's head snapped over to him, and he shut up when he saw the look she was giving him. Sure, she might be being nice now, but his information was proving to be faulty and he wasn't stupid. She was the kind of woman who used to be worshipped out of fear of what would happen if they didn't.

"What? What's going on?" Harry whispered, pulling out his wand.

"Vampires, two of them. One of them is at the door, but the other one is snooping around the back." Jasper whispered back, standing. "I'll handle this."

"Damn right you're going to handle it, and I'll be handling the back door." Harry hissed, standing and heading for the kitchen before Jasper could stop him. He was torn- he wanted to go after him, but the front door handle was jiggling and he wanted to fight on his own terms.

He swung the door open before the Vampire could make another move and swung his fist into his nose simultaneously with his foot which he connected with the other man's shin.

Just as the unknown undead was going to topple back, he grabbed him by the front of the shirt and yanked him inside. This wasn't the sort of thing that you wanted the neighbors seeing.

000

End chapter 38

Oh god, this is only 3 pages but its past 1 in the morning and I am exhausted. I couldn't bear to go without updating, though, so consider this a mini-update. In my defense, my internet was down for hours.


	39. Chapter 39

CHAPTER 39

He was alone on the cliff, except for the bodies of his pack and the dust heaps of the Vampires. Moving quickly through them, he determined that only three of them were dead and that the others were simply healing themselves and had fallen asleep to speed the process. His own ribs were still a little sore, but it'd been a clean break so it healed quickly.

There were still those two Vampires who'd gotten away, and they were a threat even though their leader was dead.

He was torn, though. He wanted to go and retrieve Bella's body before the water could carry her far away, because her parents deserved that much. How was he going to explain this to her father without ruining the friendship that his own father had with him?

No solution presented itself.

The cliffs were slippery with the rain that was now coming down in sheets, and the sky's tears hid his. Bella was many things to him, but chiefly she was a definition, someone that he wanted to protect and please.

When he reached the beach, he prepared to dive into the water, but then he saw something dark twitch out of the corner of his eyes. Turning towards it with his teeth bared, thinking that it was one of the Vampires that'd escaped, he discovered something even more impossible.

Bella lay there, propped up on her elbows and wetter than a rat.

"Jake?" his ears barely picked up the sound of her voice, it was so weak.

He transformed back into human shape and sprinted over to her, uncaring that he was naked. She smiled faintly, reaching out with one hand.

"You're alive…" she whispered, her hand cupping the back of his head. He sobbed, and buried his face in her shirt, shaking from head to toe. She stopped smiling because it hurt too much, but her eyes glowed with happiness. When she'd jumped off the cliff, she'd been sure that everyone else would be dead by the time she made it to land; the battle had been gruesome.

"And so are you." he mumbled at last, muffled by the chilly flesh of her stomach. He could feel a feverish glow of warmth beneath the outwardly cold feel of her skin, and shuddered in a way that had nothing to do with the rain or the harsh wind that'd kicked up. A storm was coming, and a very nasty one from what he could feel in his bones.

"Bella, we need to get out of here. I need to get you warm, and then go track down some of them that got away. We can only pray that they haven't killed anyone."

She nodded and sat slowly up with his help. He gave up on supporting her when she nearly fell down several times in a row and carried her instead.

He wanted to run, but that would jostle her too much and he didn't know if the rocks had broken any of her bones after her cliff diving stunt. Speaking of which….

"Bella, why did you jump?"

"Hm? Oh. Well, I remembered that water cloaks your body scent and it seemed like the smartest thing to do, seeing that Victoria was probably out for my blood specifically. I can't fight back like you can- I'm not strong or fast enough." She giggled crazily, lolling her head back onto his shoulder. "I'd probably trip."

He laughed too, not because it was funny but because he felt like he was going to explode if he didn't let out some of the emotion building inside of him. Quil was gone. Quil had been like one of his arms since he was a little boy, both before and after Bella came back to him, and now he wasn't there anymore.

"Jake?" She spoke his name like a question, touching his cheek. It was salty and wet. "Oh, Jake… You're the one who should be held right now, not me."

He just squeezed her tighter and stumbled onwards. He couldn't break down yet. There wasn't anybody left to fight if he did, and he wasn't ready to have the burden of an entire town's lost lives on his shoulders.

"Jake?"

"Yes?" He choked.

"You're still naked and we're getting close to the Reservation."

"Oh." He altered their path and took them off of the path and through the woods, which was the back way to get into his house without getting seen. It was very useful when he was emotional and didn't know if he could control his transformations.

000

Harry raised his wand and silently sent a Jelly-legs curse under the door. There was a loud thump as the Vampire fell over and he grinned in triumph, flinging the door open loudly in order to startle the intruder.

Opening the door revealed a young girl, maybe thirteen at the oldest, whining in fear and holding tightly to her legs, which no doubt felt more than a little strange at the moment. His eyes started to soften, but then her teeth caught the light and she jerked her head forehead. Her jaw snapped closed just a centimeter from his calf, and his game face came back.

Glad that he'd thought to put his boots on, the ones with metal soles, he slammed his foot down on her face. There was a yip like a small dog, and he twisted his foot until she stopped squirming, too weak from the pain to try and bite him again.

He knelt and gripped her under her armpits, dragging her inside. Getting his hands on a kitchen knife was the work of moments, and he staked her with it before he could have a second thought. There was the crazed gleam of blood-lust in her eyes even after her soul departed, and her body disintegrated. He burned the ashes like he'd been trained, even though he doubted that the Vampire that'd turned her was around to revive the ashes.

There was a loud crash coming from the living room, and then he heard Luna scream incoherently. He yanked the knife out of the pile of ashes, ignoring the blisters that formed on his palm from the heated metal.

The couch was flipped over and Luna had her wand aimed between Jasper's eyes. Confused, Harry looked around and saw Franz curled into a ball in the corner, a small pile of smoking ashes not far from Luna, and a red stain on the carpet about a foot wide that looked like blood. Vampires didn't bleed...

Frowning, he continued his rapid examination and gasped when he saw that Luna's stomach was bleeding profusely, the liquid splashing in little rivulets down her ankles and onto the carpet where she was standing. She was swaying slightly, obviously becoming light-headed from the blood loss. She held her ground, though, and her wand didn't waver in the slightest, and neither did her eyes.

As he stood, she said slowly and carefully, "Jasper, please back away. I know that you aren't in your right mind right now and I don't hold it against you, but I do want you to back away for your own good. Please don't force me to hurt you."

Jasper was inhaling rapidly, his eyes completely black and his hands tensed into claws at his sides. He was continuously lurching forward one step like a drunkard and then stumbling back, like a bull bucking against an invisible chain.

Well aware that his boyfriend was fighting with his Vampire nature, Harry transfigured Luna's shirt into bandages and cast an altered sticking charm to make them tighten and hold fast around her injury. She smiled, although she did not turn her head. That would break Jasper's self-control, because it would give him enough time to forget that she was a person.

Jasper's eyes didn't lighten at all, and he advanced a whole step instead of a half, and he didn't lurch back.

Harry caught his breath and went with his instincts, leaping onto Jasper's back and pulling his head back until it was surrounded by his scent, which should have overwhelmed what he could have smelled from Luna.

His plan worked, but this meant that Jasper was now focusing on him. He hissed as the Vampire's strong hands closed around his ankles, which he was using to hold himself up by wrapping them around Jasper's hips, and squeezed.

Luna took her chance when he waved her off and crawled out of the room, looking so pale that he could only wonder what had happened to her. His best guess was that the dead Vampire had somehow gotten at her stomach and torn something while trying to eat her insides.

He could hear the front door slam, and a quick look confirmed that Franz was no longer on the premises. Let him go- they'd find him later.

Jasper pulled sharply on his arm, removing it from its socket in one fell move, and Harry screeched in pain, kicking him reflexively in the lower stomach with one of his ankles. Jasper didn't show any sign of pain, and Harry looked nervously at the butcher knife in his other hand, the one not attached to the arm that was now out of its socket.

He didn't want to, but Jasper wasn't giving him much of a choice. A carefully-placed stab might be what Jasper needed to jolt him out of his blood-crazed state. Harry bowed his head, touching his lips to the back of the blonde's neck. He'd never thought that it would come to this, and hurting Jasper would hurt him just as badly as if he was the one being stabbed, but there was no other way.

The blonde shouted when Harry drove the knife into the slot between his neck and his collarbone, where the thyroid gland was. He sank to his knees, pressing his hand to his neck and gurgling in agony.

Harry hesitated a second, wanting to stay and tend to him despite the danger, but came to his senses long enough to leave. He found Luna in the bathroom, lying prostrate on the floor with the first-aid kit (with some magic potion additions) clutched to her chest like a child. She was unconscious, and her breathing was uneven.

He closed the door firmly and propped the linen cupboard against it. He'd never noticed how flimsy and unlikely to hold off a Vampire the doors were in this house.

Luna's breathing stopped completely for 10 seconds, and Harry stuffed his fist in his mouth to hold back the scream of helplessness that was building in his throat. When her breathing returned the panic receded from his eyes, but he knelt on the ground beside and removed the kit from her arms. Going through it with the speed of long-practice (a war isn't a no-injury event), he pulled out a blood-replenishing potion first, since it was the most crucial.

Taking care to not jostle her unnecessarily, he rolled her over and set her arms out of the way. There, in its full glory, was a red bloom of her blood staining the bandages down to the very fibers.

He began untying them, taking time in between removing pieces to press a towel tightly to the wound to make the blood stop. By the time he reached the last layer, the blood had stopped coming like he'd hoped. Looking at the wound, he could see the signs that she'd taken a basic mending potion before passing out.

"Smart girl." He murmured, getting out some disinfectant. He was glad that she was unconscious for this. Disinfecting and re-dressing the wound didn't take him long, and he managed to determine that the wound had been made with teeth. Since Jasper hadn't had any blood on him or around his mouth, he knew that it had to be the dead Vampire that'd hurt her.

When he was done with the basic bit, he propped her head up and fed her the blood-replenishing potion. Just as he was softly massaging her neck to make the potion go down easier, something hit the door hard.

He jumped and jostled the potion bottle, making Luna choke and gurgle. He fixed it before he could damage her too badly and took a deep breath. Standing back up, he picked her up bridal-style and carried her into the bath tub. It was still damp from the shower he'd taken earlier, but he knew that she wouldn't mind.

The door banged again, and the linen basket rocked forward so dramatically that he was positive that it would topple over. It didn't.

But before he could relax, the door flew off its hinges and landed just inches from his feet. He looked up from the door to see, not Jasper as he'd been expecting, but Jacob Black.

"Uh…"

He looked from Harry's blood-stained shirt to Luna in the tub and back, his eyes going very wide. Harry held up a hand.

"This isn't what you're thinking. I love this girl like crazy and I would never hurt her. There were some, er…"

Jake rolled his eyes. "Vampires?"

"Yeah."

"Did you see where they went after they finished terrorizing you?"

Harry shook his head, choosing not to question how Jake knew about the Vampires. He didn't know that Jake was thinking the exact same thing.

"We were attacked by two, one on either side of the house, so I went into the kitchen to deal with one while Jasper handled the one at the front. When I finished with mine, I came out to the living room to help them but saw that their Vampire was already dead. Luna was injured, badly, in the process though and Jasper kind of lost his head a little."

"God, that's awful. How did you get away? Where is he now?"

"I don't know. I stabbed him in the thyroid because I knew that that would hurt him but not kill him and made a run for to here. I barricaded us inside, since Luna was already unconscious, and then you came along." He sighed. "If you're going to go after anyone, go after the young one, Franz."

"He got away?"

"Yeah, he slipped away while I was fighting Jasper, so neither of us could stop him. He might be a Vampire, but he's young and stupid and can't have gone far. Jasper is probably in the woods licking his wounds and hunting." He smiled nervously, trying to believe his next words. "He'll be fine."

Jake didn't believe Harry's confident façade at all, but knew that Harry was probably just as frightened as he was. "Well, in case Luna wakes up and asks, Bella is okay. She dove off a cliff to keep the vampires from getting her and somehow survived. She's at my house, if you wanted to drop by later."

Harry nodded. "Thanks for the information." He fiddled with his shirt, and then stated, "We're not telling Charlie a word of what's happened, are we?"

"Not a chance in hell. Thanks for getting the other blood-suckers; I'll go find that Franz guy now before he can cause any trouble."

Harry nodded again. "Okay. Good luck."

Jake shot him a tired smile, a facsimile of his usual mile-wide grin. "Thanks."

000

End chapter 39

Not much left, guys!


	40. Chapter 40

A/N: Number 40 already!

CHAPTER 40

Luna didn't stir when he slammed his shoulder against the wall, popping his arm back into its socket. It hurt just as much as it had last time that he'd been injured this way, and he wondered how he could have forgotten that.

Rubbing it to keep the blood flowing where it was supposed to, he looked back at Luna. She was looking healthier already, the potion doing her good, but he knew that he would need to get her to a hospital quickly so that she could be properly examined for serious internal damage. All sorts of tubes and packets of her insides could be mussed for all he knew.

He debated whether he should call a hospital or commandeer Bella's truck, since he didn't have a car.

He decided to borrow Bella's truck and just hope that she wouldn't mind. Approaching the tub, he bent down and slipped his uninjured arm beneath Luna's shoulders just as he had before, and then slid her legs over his thigh, which he kept braced up a little. This position required him to hobble instead of walk, but he couldn't afford to mess up his arm again.

Locking the door behind him after sending the living room a final incredulous look (it was going to be hell to clean all of those ashes, blood and burn marks out of the carpet), he stumbled down the steps, almost dropping Luna. Her head jolted back against his shoulder and he winced in sympathy. There was a good chance that she'd pulled something in her neck.

The two houses separating theirs from the Swans had never seemed so large, but the sidewalk just went on and on. When they made it, he sat Luna down against the front tire of the car, ensured that her head would not topple forward, and then snuck around the back of the house. There was a spare key hidden under the upturned watering can that he'd seen her use.

Unlocking the door took only a moment and then he was inside her house. He felt eerily like he was breaking and entering even though he knew that Bella wouldn't mind.

The keys were hanging on their little hook, the same as always, and he took them without a second thought. He made sure to lock the house behind him and then circled back around.

Luna had, contrary to his hopes, fallen onto her side, her hips twisting painfully to accommodate the position. He groaned and picked her up, stuffing her in the passenger seat and then crawled over her to sit in the driver's seat. For a terrifying moment the car refused to start, but then it kicked into gear and he sighed.

The hospital wasn't far, and he was confident that the I.D.s the Ministry had issued to them after the war would work just fine for the paperwork he would need to file for this incident.

000

Jake scanned the town with his senses, trying to catch a hint of either vampire. He picked up a scent coming from the supermarket, which was strange. He sprinted towards it anyway, hustling a pair of little kids eating candy out of the way.

He was just in time to see neither Jasper nor Franz step out of it, but Edward Cullen.

They both stood still when they caught sight of each other, and Edward's hands slowly tightened on the handles of his shopping bags. Jake raised an eyebrow when he noticed them.

"What, oh please don't tell me that you eat now?" He asked sarcastically, jabbing a finger in the direction of the bags.

"Don't be a twit." Edward sneered. "They're ingredients for something that I'm making for Bella."

"An apology cake?" Jake hazarded, his interest interfering with his antagonism. Edward nodded, also looking a little unsure about their new non-violent course of behavior.

"Yes, something like that. I just can't let her acknowledge me as a distant friend. I hope that making this will help demonstrate to her that I intend to be the best that I can be towards her this time."

Jake sighed. "Good luck with that. She's stupidly happy with this girlfriend of hers, and I don't think that she'll take to well to you trying to get back with her. I'll bet that she's already threatened you."

"She has, but I don't think that she could have been completely honest." He shrugged, a smirk flitting in the corners of his eyes. "Besides, she can't marry this _girlfriend _of hers, and I know that marriage is something important to her. It might be what breaks their relationship later…and I will be the one to hold her hand as she recovers from it."

Jake reeled back, disgusted. "You're sick, Cullen. I don't think that I'd like you even if you weren't a leech."

He started to walk away, since he still needed to catch Franz, but Edward stopped him.

"Just because you aren't man enough to fight for her doesn't mean that I'm not." He chuckled scornfully. "I bet that you'll end up in the arms of some slut and spend the rest of your life mooning over what could have been."

Jake whirled back around to face him, eyes flashing with anger. "That's it, Cullen. You will meet me in the woods tomorrow night and we'll settle this disagreement properly. If I win the fight, you will back off and leave Bella alone. And if you win, then I will date whoever you want me to."

Edward laughed. "I like that. Prepare yourself- I've seen some nasty pieces of work around here, and I don't feel the need to hold back my nasty side for your sake."

"Good." Jake snapped back, "Because I won't be holding back either."

"I'm terrified." Edward said drolly, and then sauntered over to his Volvo. "Have fun with whatever dog business that's got you so tense."

"Considering that that business affects your brother, I wouldn't be so flippant about it if I were you." Jake shot back, and then sprinted back onto the sidewalk and was out of sight, following his nose. Edward was left frozen, groceries suspended over his trunk, dread filling his stomach with leaden butterflies that bumped and scraped against his nerves.

His brother? Emmett? No, it had to be Jasper. Jasper was the one dating a human, although he hadn't met him yet.

He rolled his eyes. It seemed like everyone around him was turning homosexual these days. What was wrong with someone of the opposite sex? They couldn't be happy with someone of the same, surely. It just wasn't right, or even natural for that matter.

A black light swam, oil-like, into his eyes. He would need to track down Jasper and have a long talk with him about this. Just because things were once wonderful between him and Bella didn't mean that it was okay for any other vampires to date humans.

Making sure that the groceries weren't the type to spoil in the space of a couple of hours, he closed the trunk of his car and chose to leave it in the supermarket parking lot and go seek out Jasper on foot. He was no doubt in the woods, where he couldn't drive anyway.

His cell phone vibrated in his pocket and he pulled it out, putting it to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Edward? It's me, Alice."

"What's wrong?" he could hear her voice shaking across the phone lines. He didn't really care about what she had to say most of the time, but when she had one of her visions, he always liked to know what they were about simply because it gave him the privilege of knowing something that nobody else could or would know yet.

"It's…" she gasped on a sob. "It's Bella. I'm on my way over there, but could you please go to the hospital and wait there for me? See if you can find out from the nurses how she is doing."

"I'm on my way. Was there anything else?"

"Um, Harry should be there, so ask him how Jasper is doing. I was only able to get a couple of images, but they weren't good and I'm worried about him as well."

"Who is Harry?"

She sighed, and he could hear a tissue crinkling as she wiped her eyes. "He's the kid Jasper's dating. He's got eye-catching curly black hair and he twitches like a druggie when he's nervous, which he will be if he's at the hospital like I think he is."

"Okay, I should be able to find him."

She smiled. "Thank you so much, Edward."

"No, thank _you. _I would have never known that Bella was hurt if it wasn't for you."

He couldn't put his finger on it, but her voice sounded a little bit off when she replied, "Yeah, of course. No problem."

"Alice, are you okay?"

"No, but I will be once I can see for myself that Bella is alright."

"Okay. Good-bye."

He hung up, cutting off her pleasantry. There was something going on between Bella and Alice, and he intended to find out what.

000

Bella was in the emergency room for internal bleeding, an injury that they never would have noticed that she had if one of the Pack hadn't noticed the funny way that her skin was swelling. Apparently she _had _been knocked against one of the boulders in the water.

Billy sat beside Embry and the other boys in the waiting room, biting his nails like a child. Since he hadn't had a choice because of Bella's serious condition, Charlie was contacted and on his way from the police station.

Two seats down from the pack was a kid who looked familiar to him, who'd come in several minutes after them with a blonde girl who was suffering from a massive amount of trauma and tearing in her torso.

He'd come out of the doctor's office with his arm in a sling, so Billy guessed that it'd been dislocated at some point.

He wondered what they'd gotten themselves into to have gotten those kinds of injuries.

000

Jacob pursued the scent of Franz, finding him after an anti-climatic search skulking in an alleyway. He was talking to a girl that recognized as one of Bella's friends from school, and from what he could see it was with the intention to lure her further into the alley.

Plastering a giant fake smile on his face, he stalked over and clapped a big hand on Franz's shoulder.

"I hate to interrupt you guys, but I really need to talk to my man Franz here. I hope that you don't mind…?"

"A-Angela. And no, it's fine." She giggled, pink-cheeked already from whatever sort of flattery techniques that Franz had been using on her. "Oh, say hello to Bella for me if you see her?"

"Sure." He nodded, inwardly pleading for her to go away so that he could beat the hell out of Franz. He was obviously the kind of guy that needed a firm hand on his leash in order to stay on the right path. For all he knew, Franz might be beyond the self-control needed to give up human blood.

"Okay, thanks. Bye." She waved, and then finally walked away.

Franz timidly looked over at Jake, and squeaked when Jake tightened his hand until the bones in his shoulder began to make popping noises and scrunch together.

"Please don't hurt me."

"Fat chance." Jake growled back. He had some frustration to release, after all.

"Oh god…"

Jake slammed him back against the brick wall of the alley, disturbing some loose powder. "Now, can you or can't you keep your fangs to yourself, jelly-spine?"

"I'll be good, I swear!"

"Oh really? Because so far I don't believe you." He leaned in close, hating the stench but bearing it for the sakes of everyone that this piece of scum would attack if given half a chance.

000

End chapter 40

Edward's bigoted views are obviously not mine. Written under the influence of vodka (that should be my disclaimer)


	41. Chapter 41

CHAPTER 41

He dragged Franz by the arm as long as there were still people around to watch, but switched to his hair when they hit the woods.

The Vampire was silent outside of an occasional whimper or complaint, both of which Jake ignored. If Franz had been a member of his pack or just some kid that he'd caught trespassing or shoplifting, he would have felt pity. But for a willing criminal? No. There was no pity in his heart for them.

Once deeply in the woods and well on the way to his house, where he'd decided to chain him with the chains that he put on the tires of his Rabbit in the winter to a tree or something for the time being, Franz stopped struggling and simply allowed himself to be led, meek as a nun.

Bored with the silence, Jake broke the silence. "Why'd you stop?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You heard me. Why did you stop wriggling like an eel all of a sudden?"

Franz shrugged. "I didn't want to look weak in case the stronger Vampire lurking around here sees me; it's important to me to make a good impression on my kind."

Jake jerked to a stop and forcefully turned Franz's head to face him. "_What?"_

"What, you can't feel him?" Franz asked with mock innocence. "I can feel his power in my spine and in my toes. It's not my fault if your wolf nose can't pick that up. You were just farther back in the line on the day they handed out power, I guess."

He wanted to slap the little impudent punk right then and there, but he resisted. Straining his nose to the farthest that it could smell, he still didn't pick up anything.

"Are you joshing me?"

Looking insulted, Franz vehemently shook his head. "I might be new to all of this, but it would be extremely disrespectful of me to pretend that someone of his caliber was close by. I don't think he has any intention of approaching us, though, if that makes you feel better. I can smell deer blood, so he's probably just grabbing a snack.

Jake nodded tersely. "Fine. Come on, pick up your feet. I want to have you dealt with before my appointment tonight."

"Oh yes, the same one in which you're going to get your ass kicked?" Franz sneered. "I couldn't help over-hearing your conversation."

Jake shrugged, unaffected by the Vampire's lack of confidence in his skill. He hadn't seen either of them fight, so he wasn't an educated judge on the matter. Hell, if Sam Uley were here and was telling him that he didn't stand a chance, he wouldn't have bothered to listen. Some people just couldn't be taken seriously.

Franz dragged his feet for the rest of the trip, and wouldn't pick up the pace even when Jake started smacking him upside the ear.

Frustrated, Jake gave up and threw the Vampire over his shoulder as roughly as he would a sack of potatoes, though he felt more like a statue, and took off running. His house was close, and dusk was falling. If he hurried, he wouldn't be late. In this instance, a late entrance wouldn't be dramatic but instead rather foolish.

And he didn't want to look foolish.

000

Bella woke up in severe pain. It wasn't the sort of pain that made her curl up into a little ball when she was menstruating or had broken something, though. There seemed to be a blanket covering this pain, and it only made it worse because she couldn't figure out where the pain was originating. Usually when she knew where the pain was coming from she could ignore it more effectively, but right now it was as though someone had taken the pain and spread it over all of her nerves and muscles and organs and everything like butter on warm toast.

She moaned, rolling over onto her side and clutching her arms, trying to hold in some of the agony. It was no use, and she could feel a dull throbbing _tug _when she moved her arms. Looking over, she saw the I.V. and sighed miserably.

She was really starting to hate hospitals. Rolling back onto her back, she started to count the ceiling tiles until the nurse came by on her rounds.

"Oh, you're awake!" she said with such cheerful unexpected enthusiasm that Bella jumped. Her stomach rolled over angrily and the I.V. nipped at her veins.

"Ah!" Bella's eyes filled with tears and she bit the inside of her cheek. The sensation was dulled, and spread out like a plague to join the rest of the fog of pain.

"Lie back, sweetie, lie back. You've got to be careful or we'll have to put you in restraints so that you can't hurt yourself." Her broad matronly face smiled down at her, completely ignoring that she'd been the one to startle Bella into injuring herself in the first place. "Here, let me get you some more pain killers."

Bella reached out with the arm not snared with the I.V. to be safe, catching the nurse's sleeve. "Um, is there anybody here to see me? I'd like to say hello to them first before you dose me if there are, since pain killers make me drowsy."

"Of course, sweetie. I'll send whoever it is in."

Bella nodded. "Thanks."

"No problem." The door shut with a 'snick', and Bella flopped back against her pillow. She was getting really irritated by the way that nurse kept calling her 'sweetie', like she was a five-year-old with a scraped knee.

A few minutes of impatient waiting later, during which she managed to bite off all of the fingernails on her free hand, the door re-opened. She didn't know who she was expecting to come in, but it wasn't her father. She supposed that that wasn't very fair of her, since he was her parent and it was logical for him to be concerned and present, but she was expecting Luna or Jake or someone like that.

He smiled wearily at her, his mustache half-hiding the expression. "Hi, Bells."

"Hi, Charlie."

He came closer and hesitated a second before sitting in the non-descript beige chair allotted for visitors. It didn't look like it was padded properly, and would probably give him back problems. In a featureless white room, it blended perfectly with the stifling carpet and too-bright light that made her feel like an insect in a jar.

"How are you feeling?"

"Pained, I suppose." She smiled softly when he began to look concerned, reaching for his hand. Neither of them had expressed an excess of physical affection for one another since she was a little girl, but she felt compelled to reassure him with touch. It was probably the drugs messing with her mind. You'd think that they would have figured out a better way to 'kill pain' by now.

"I'll call the nurse; you should get some more pain killers soon if you're feeling-"

"She already knows." Bella cut him off gently. "I told her to wait until I'd spoken with whoever was waiting. I didn't think that you'd want to try and talk to me when I couldn't tell my toes from a piece of grass, would you?"

He smiled again, a little bit of lightness filtering through his worried brown eyes. "That was nice of you, Bells." He looked down, smoothing his thumb across her pale hand. "I…this might be too soon, but I would like to know what happened."

"I jumped off a cliff." Bella replied curtly, not wanting to try and be 'tactful' about this, which she knew from experience and observation would only make her father more uncomfortable. "It was nobody's fault, just a stupid stunt that I did on a whim. I would have been fine, too, if I hadn't fought the water and exhausted myself to unconsciousness from that."

Charlie gaped. "But…but what could have possessed you to jump off a cliff?" he leaned in close, urgency making his shoulders tenser than a soldier in a flimsy bomb shelter. "Bella, are you feeling…?"

"Suicidal?" she finished for him, her flippancy clearly pushing his buttons because his mouth thinned out into a thin line. "Of course not, Charlie. You know me better than that."

"I don't know, sweetheart, do I?"

She sat up a little straighter, her eyes getting a bit wild. "Dad, I swear that I would never do something like that to you, to mom, to everyone. Do you have any idea how selfish that would be? I could never break so many hearts just because I felt tired of living or whatever. I'm perfectly happy to be alive, Dad."

He relaxed, reading the sincerity in every atom of her battered body. "Alright, I believe you. But don't you _ever _do something like that again, do you hear me?"

"Yes, sir." She saluted.

000

"There we go, nice and tight." Jake patted his handiwork with a smile. Franz scowled, jerking his shoulders in an attempt to loosen the chain wrapped securely around him. There was even one looped cleverly between his legs that would tighten painfully if he struggled too far. It had obviously pinched him just then because Franz yelped.

Jake grinned cruelly. "Hurts, doesn't it? Now you just sit tight and I'll be back when I'm back. If I'm feeling friendly, then I'll catch you a rabbit or something to snack on."

"Fuck you!"

"Heh, you wish." Jake taunted, not knowing where that came from a moment later. He cleared his throat. "So, yeah. try not to bother anyone if they come along, since I like everyone in this vicinity and I don't have any scruples about kicking your ass if you piss somebody off."

Franz's eloquent reply was to stick out his tongue.

Jake raised his hands. "Fine, whatever. I'm leaving now."

And with that final parting comment, he turned and strode back into the woods. Once out of sight, he sniffed to make sure that there weren't any people in the bushes like last time, which had been humiliating. Secure in the knowledge that he was utterly alone; he stripped and set his shorts within easy distance before transforming.

Once established in his other body, he bent his head and gently grasped the shorts with his teeth and set off at a dead run. He kept his nostrils flared, taking in the scents of the forest and searching for any hint of Edward's. Knowing him, the Vampire was gagging for this fight and would also be patrolling him.

Nevertheless, he didn't catch scent of him until he was much closer to Forks than was safe.

Edward stepped out from behind a tree and jerked his head to the side. "There's a clearing just over there. We can use it as a fighting area."

Jake bobbed his head and moved slowly to the clearing, keeping one eye on Edward the entire time. He couldn't trust him not to pull a dirty trick, and needed to watch him closely.

Edward miraculously kept his hands to himself until they were in the clearing and Jake dumped his shorts at the base of a tree.

"Alright, let's do this."

Neither of them moved, Jake keeping his eyes sharper than a microscope on him. Thanks to this, he caught the minute tensing of muscles in Edward's wrist before he charged him.

Rolling to the side, he nipped at Edward's lower back in warning. He didn't want to hurt him too badly yet.

000

Two deer and an entire extended family of rabbits later, Jasper was feeling a lot calmer. His heart nearly broke when he remembered pulling Harry's arm out of his socket, and he dearly hoped that he'd gotten medical attention by now.

Closing his eyes, he leaned his head back against the trunk of an oak tree and just listened to the sound of it growing. All around him was peaceful quietude, since he'd scared off any wildlife that might have dared to disturb the silence of the woods; he sank to the mossy ground and folded his legs, opening his mind and allowing the peace of the forest to soothe his soul. Harry would forgive him, he knew, but he didn't know about Luna.

He'd frightened her badly, he knew, but at the same time he was proud of himself for holding back as long as he did. This was a clear improvement, and every improvement he made meant that it was getting safer for Harry to be with him.

His lips curled up at the thought of Harry, and he wished that he could be with him then.

The peacefulness of his calming procedure was ruined when he smelled a Vampire close by, and one of their ancient Quileute enemies. His eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth. There had been invading Vampires in this area recently, and he had intended earlier to introduce himself to the Quileutes and attempt to win their trust since he felt that he could be a valuable asset in the war against them, but he'd never gotten around to it. Now was the perfect time to butt in and demonstrate his good intentions, though.

Standing without difficulty, he took off at a dead run for the source of the scent. When he caught sight of the figures wrestling, he didn't bother to look twice but merely aimed a sharp blow to the vampire's head that stunned it.

Before it could recover and attempt to bite him like so many of his opponents in the past had, he stomped on his neck and dropped to his knees, jabbing his elbow into his heart cavity. The Vampire screamed something unintelligible at him, obviously still alive.

He was about to reach inside and crush his heart when he recognized him and froze.

"_Edward?" _and then he processed the entire situation and growled. "Why in god's name are you attacking our allies? This violates the contract! Do you have _any _idea how stupid what you just did is?"

Judging by the look on Edward's face, this had not occurred to him. The wolf in the background seemed strangely smug now, and Edward lashed out at it. His arm fell short though, since he was considerably weakened from Jasper's assault.

"Our altercation had nothing to do with the contract."

Jasper groaned. "Let me guess, this is about Bella? Well, I've got news for you. Whether or not you intended to duel with a wolf, you have violated the contract which states that neither side is allowed to harm the other lest the contract be proven void."

Edward coughed up some venom. "I don't care."

Jasper's mouth set grimly. "Then we will need to discuss this with Carlisle, because I believe that violating something that affects all of our safety counts as treason."

000

End chapter 41

A/N: I AM GOING OUT OF TOWN FOR A WEEK. Which means that there won't be any updates during that time, understood?


	42. Chapter 42

CHAPTER 42

Carlisle exited the hospital and stopped in his tracks when he found two of his sons leaning against his car. Since both of them had been in Washington, not Alaska, the last time he'd been aware, this was somewhat unexpected.

"Alright, Jasper, what have you done this time?"

Jasper seemed offended, but it didn't show for more than a few moments. "I haven't done anything, other than walk in on Edward shaming the family name and our collective honor."

"What?" Carlisle stopped tossing his keys from hand to hand. "Edward, did you say something insensitive to Bella? She's a very tender-hearted girl, and I know that you can be kind of harsh sometimes."

"I didn't say anything to her. In fact, I didn't get a chance to see her because _Jasper," _he sneered the name like it was a kind of meat gristle, "dragged me on the nearest plane back here just because I had a little argument with someone."

"Not just anyone." Jasper spared Edward a look that could freeze lava. "He arranged a meeting with one of our Quileute allies, with whom he has a rivalry that involves Bella-"

Carlisle groaned and rubbed his face.

"-and they had a physical altercation, which I disrupted and disbanded. The wolf in question has agreed not to mention this incident to his pack, from which he is currently estranged. Now, if you'll excuse me, I would like to catch a flight back to Forks. My boyfriend and several other people close to me are currently in the hospital, and Alice will need comforting. I will also do my best to open communication between myself and the Quileute Tribe. I'm sure that they will need soothing in some way."

He waved his son away. "Of course, do what you need to do. And thank you for bringing this to my attention."

With a single nod, Jasper took his leave, his shoes crunching on the silt and gravel. There was a freezing wind today, and he shuddered out of sheer habit, wishing that he was in bed with Harry, surrounded by a nest of warmth. It made him feel so much closer to human when he was within reach of Harry's soft sleeping breaths. He didn't bother to look back even as he felt Edward's eyes boring into his back with hatred and something else, something green and rotten. Once he was out of sight, gone off to the airport to fly back to his boyfriend's side, Carlisle caught his attention by dropping a parental hand on his shoulder. Edward could tell that his surrogate father was very upset since he normally treated him like an equal, not like a child. But it would seem that his understanding and tolerance of Edward's personal struggle had come to an end.

Edward squared his chin and met his eyes with a boldness that he had no right to possess.

"I knew that this would happen. Edward, I'm going to have to ask you to come on a very long walk with Esme and I. we have some things to discuss with you, because it seems that there are some things that you have either forgotten or don't care to obey anymore."

"What Jasper told you was true, but it had nothing to do with our pact with the wolves!" Edward snapped. "I challenged Jacob Black to a duel in the forests over our separate feelings for Bella. It shouldn't affect our pack with them in any way- it was a consensual event until Jasper came in out of nowhere. He struck me!"

Carlisle seemed thoughtful. "And did you inform Bella of your duel with Jacob?"

"No, I didn't have time to. I didn't even get to see her at the hospital; I didn't have time."

"Walk with me." Carlisle swept into the woods, plucking his cellular phone out of pocket and typing a message to Esme. He could hear and smell Edward following him, and neatly side-stepped a tepid puddle that would have ruined his shoes. "Edward, I have thought long and hard about your attachment to Bella, and as a mentor to you, I advise that you break it off and have no further contact with her."

The words hit him like a anvil to the chest, to a human chest. "W-what?" he spluttered. "But just last week you said that it wasn't healthy for me to shut myself away!"

"That was before I had all of the information that I do now, much of which confirms suspicions that I'd had about you. Bella has ceased to register as an individual to you- she had been demoted to the class of an object, one which, although you cherish, you do not love." His cell phone vibrated and he looked up at their agreed signal, spying Esme floating through the trees in a pair of loose pants normally used for sleeping and one of his shirts. She smiled at him, but it was guarded and distant, unlike her usual warmth. Her eyes strayed to their sun.

"Hello Edward."

"Hello, Esme." Shame bloomed through him, and he found that he couldn't look her in the eye. He didn't know why he should feel ashamed: all of his actions were perfectly justifiable!

"I heard that you made some trouble in Forks." She said without preamble or her usual fashion of beating around the bush. "I don't want to treat you like a child, Edward, because you aren't one, but I do think that you are being very immature."

"Immature?!" his eyes bulged. Him, be immature? Never! "If anyone has been immature, it's Bella! She won't take me back, and she keeps threatening me!"

"What has she threatened you with?" Carlisle asked, puzzled. There wasn't much a human could do against a Vampire, especially one in an emotional state of mind.

"She's said various things, but among them she's threatened me with her _girlfriend." _His tone said exactly what he thought of whoever was dating Bella. "And she told me to stop making advances towards her."

Esme exchanged glances with her husband. "What do you mean? You led us to believe that Bella appreciated your affections and was reacting favorably. You told me that she would be my daughter-in-law soon. Edward, did you lie to us?"

He shrugged casually. "I didn't see a reason not to. She'll come around eventually- I just have to be patient."

"No."

Edward looked at Carlisle curiously, and found that rare cold look in his normally compassionate gaze. "No." he repeated. "You will not return to Forks. You will either remain here or some other location, as long as it is not in the state of Washington or anywhere near Bella Swan. Disobey this, and I will have to use force to prevent you."

"What? You can't do this!"

Esme's hands, deceptively slim, settled around his biceps and squeezed down like chains while Carlisle removed a bottle of sedative from his pocket which he carried for safety, in case he or one of his loved ones lost control of their abilities or hunger. "Please don't struggle, son. You're not thinking straight anymore- if you were in your right mind, you would never try to force yourself on Bella. This is for your own good."

He writhed like a snake, but he couldn't go more than an inch in every direction. Esme was _strong._

The syringe punctured his neck and everything went very fuzzy. The last thing he saw before he completely blacked out, muscles going numb, was Esme's tear-streaked face.

When he awoke, he would be in the basement of their current dwelling, with Emmett nearby in case he misbehaved.

000

Franz was right where he left him, which was good because he would have had an absolute shit-fit if he wasn't.

Jake nonchalantly moved over to him, eyed the signs of strain on the chains, and dropped a rabbit into Franz's lap. "There, I said that I might get you something and I did. Now is the part where you say 'thank you'."

"Thanks." Franz dipped his head and sank his teeth into the still-twitching flesh of the recently deceased rabbit. The slurping noises made Jacob want to throw up, so he left the vampire to his meal and went inside. He stopped in the kitchen for a large glass of water, and pushed the button on his answering machine. There was one from his dad, telling him how Bella was doing.

When he was finished rehydrating, he went upstairs and washed himself off with a damp cloth and then put a fresh pair of shorts and a shirt on. He debated over whether or not shoes would be necessary, and then decided that he ought to just so that the nurses at the hospital wouldn't think that he was a complete asshole or a homeless person.

Once he considered himself decent once more, he set off for the hospital.

000

Harry looked up from the outdated magazine he was reading when he heard someone else come in. Visiting hours were technically over, but Harry had whined and begged until the staff looked up who he was waiting for and became more sympathetic.

He'd been hoping that the mind-numbing articles of the vapid gossip magazine would help take his mind off of his worry, but so far it wasn't working. A quick phone call a couple of hours ago had notified Hermione, and through her Ron, of Luna's condition. She'd clucked and told him that his ability to find trouble and get other people into it with him was apparently still alive and well. He'd stuck his tongue out at the phone, even though he knew that she couldn't see it.

Jacob Black, the Indian boy who was friends with Bella (and perhaps, at one time, more than that), walked in with a blushing nurse beside him trying in vain to explain why he couldn't visit Bella right now.

"It's okay; I just want to look at her for a second, to see with my own eyes that she's alright." Jake reassured her, all the while steam-rolling his way through the hospital waiting room, obviously intent on seeing her.

From the look of things, the pack and his father had just left, so he'd missed them by a hair. He noticed Harry and blinked when he saw the sling his arm was in.

"What happened to you, Harry?"

Harry seemed confused. "What the hell are you talking about?"

He gestured broadly to the sling and various bruises gleaming with ointment. "I'm talking about that fact that you look like someone knocked you over with a steel pipe."

"Well, you don't look to hot either." Harry replied nastily, although he grinned afterwards to show that he meant it as a joke. "I had a piggyback ride that turned out to be a little more intense than I was hoping for. And Luna somehow accidentally gave herself some torn organs."

Jake's mouth dropped open. "Jesus!"

"Damn straight. Are you here to see Bella? I heard that she had internal bleeding from that cliff diving stunt."

"How do you know about that?" Jake demanded, shooing the nurse away. She sighed and stalked off, her shoes squeaking against the gleaming floor.

Harry tapped the side of his nose. "I have my ways."

All he got was an unimpressed look. He sighed.

"Fine, I overheard her father ranting about it to your dad. Those two gossip like old ladies, and they're not as quiet as they think they are."

"Ah."

"Uh-huh."

Jake shifted awkwardly from foot to foot and Harry stared down at his magazine without seeing it.

"Well, I'm going to…uh, go."

Harry smiled tightly. "Yeah, you do that. I'll hold down the fort. Although I warn you, Alice Cullen is in there and she's as protective as a mama bear right now. you're going to have to do some serious sweet-talking to get past her. Trust me, I've tried."

Jake nodded. "Thanks for the heads-up. How long has she been here?"

"Oh, about two hours. She rushed in here and glued herself to her side and hasn't left it since."

"Okay. I'll go say hello to her. I hope, uh, I hope that you and Luna heal up okay."

Harry's smile was genuine this time. "Thanks, love."

Blushing and not knowing why, Jake left. He tripped over his own feet on the way out of sight, and he could hear Harry trying not to laugh.

000

End chapter 42

*collapses limply* I am finally back, and I feel like a steam-rolled sack of radishes. Thanks to all of the reviews and alerts and stuff!


	43. Chapter 43

A/N: my older brother just got engaged! On slashier news, my new favorite pairing is Kirk/Spock, so those of you who haven't read any fics yet, you should!

CHAPTER 43

The next morning, Harry woke up in his own bed (the nurses finally kicked him out when the night-shifters started) and tried to figure out what was different. His sheets were still flannel and patterned with little clouds on a blue background, and the coverlet was still scratchy…

He wasn't wearing clothes, but he remembered being too tired to change into his pajamas last night after showering. Stretching his arms out, he yawned, still puzzled. And then he realized that he felt so off because he wasn't the only one in the bed. Turning slowly onto his other side, he saw a tuft of blonde hair sticking out from under the pillow. He lifted the edge of the pillow, peeking underneath, and he let out a sigh of relief when he saw that it was only Jasper.

One hazy amber eye blinked at him slowly as the Vampire came out of his rest.

"Good morning." Harry said. His voice was scratchy with sleep.

"Hello." Jasper greeted, pulling Harry rather suddenly under the pillow with him and smoothing his hands down his back. He stilled when he felt nothing but bare skin beyond his hips. "Oh…" he made to remove his hands but Harry just rolled closer, pressing himself against Jasper from head to toe, going so far as to rest their foreheads together.

He brushed his lips against Jasper's and gave him a shy smile. "Hey, this is okay. I don't mind that your hands are a little cool."

Jasper squeezed his eyes shut, and started breathing through his mouth. "I just…you're so…"

Concerned, Harry pulled back a little so that he could smooth some of the blonde's hair behind his ear. "If this is about what happened when we were attacked, and afterwards when Luna was bleeding, all is forgiven. She says that she doesn't care, and I sure as fuck don't."

He made a choked noise in the back of his throat, and then Harry found himself being held so tightly that his ribcage creaked. Jasper's nose was in his hair, and he was whispering that he was sorry over and over again.

"Jasper, please…"

"No, I almost killed you. Harry, I love you. Just knowing that I came so close to hurting you that horribly, and that I managed to hurt your arm, makes me want to explode with self-hatred."

Harry sighed gustily, sending goose pimples across Jasper's neck. "Well, my arm doesn't even hurt anymore and you had nothing to do with Luna's injury. I'm really proud of you." he pulled back enough to meet his eyes. "I talked to Alice about it and she was really surprised. She says that you almost attacked Bella last year just because of a couple drops of blood; Luna was bleeding a hell of a lot more than that, but you kept your composure for more than five minutes, from what I heard."

A slightly pleased look crossed jasper's features. "You're right; I did do a good job of controlling myself. It helps that I know you both so well, that I love you both, although on different levels."

Silence descended, although it was calm and free of pressures or tension of any kind. Harry slowly nuzzled Jasper's cheek and chest, still partially asleep. Jasper's fingers started to tentatively rub across his back once again.

"I love you, you know that?"

"Mm." Harry hummed, dropping off into sleep before he could properly reply.

After some time, peacefully holding Harry in his arms, Jasper came to a decision. This was how he wanted to spend the rest of the time left in Harry's life, so he might as well make it official.

000

A week of dividing time between visiting Bella and visiting Luna later, Bella was pronounced fit to go home as long as she didn't attend school and did her assignments at home instead. Luna had to remain on an additional week for observation, which she was very upset about.

But, as slowly as the week went by, finally the day had come for her release. Luna was bundled up in the thick clothes that Harry brought with him from their little house, since she was under strict orders to stay as warm as possible, and then strapped into a wheelchair.

"Faster, faster!"

Luna's gleeful requests were dampened by Bella's glare.

"Don't you dare..." Bella threatened Harry, giving him the evil eye. "She's only just got the bill of health- I don't want you tearing it up before we've even made it out of the door."

"Yeah, and you'll find that you'll be wrapped in the sheets too if you fuck up." Alice added, baring her teeth at him. The Vampire hadn't left Bella's side all through her time at the hospital, and the girl's relationship had grown even closer than it'd been before, which Harry hadn't thought was possible. He couldn't be positive, but he was pretty sure that Alice harbored more than just friendly feelings for Bella, but it wasn't his place to say anything. If the girls wanted to duke it out between themselves, then that was their concern and he wasn't having any of it. When the clumps of hair started flying and the claws came out, he intended to be as far away as possible.

He swallowed and slowed down, pushing Luna's wheel chair with more care. "How's this? Nice and slow; it would be impossible for me to crash into somebody going this slow."

She nodded with approval, stroking Luna's hair and keeping pace alongside the wheelchair even though this meant that everyone else wanting to pass them in the hall had to flatten themselves against the wall. She ignored the dirty looks the hospital staff was sending her, and turned her head every now and then to make sure that Alice was still following. Every time she did this, the little brunette would smile at her and wink, both of which made her feel a bit warm.

Luna reached out and weakly grabbed at her hand. She obliged her and slid their fingers together, interlocking them so that their hands wouldn't come apart easily. Since they'd reached the front desk and Harry walked over to sign the last scraps of paperwork, she bent her head and kissed Luna's forehead.

In the background, just two feet away, Alice averted her eyes, choosing to look at the tasteless plastic plants decorating the front lobby rather than see the girl she cared about shower affection on someone else. She knew now that Bella wouldn't feel the same way and, unlike Edward, she wasn't going to force herself upon her. Luna was the one Bella loved, and she could live with that, even though it hurt to breathe every time that she really thought about it.

She wasn't the only person left pining after Bella, after all. The werewolf, Jacob Black, looked at her like she was made of gold sometimes.

Some things weren't meant to be, and this wasn't a fairy tale. Happy endings didn't last forever, and not everyone got one. Besides, she was happy enough, and that was what mattered.

"Are you ready to go?" Harry asked her softly, touching her arm lightly.

She was very happy that Harry turned out to be the human addition to their family. Even if things had worked out between her and Bella, she just wasn't sure that Bella was mature enough to handle the constant pressure of having her loved ones so much older and stronger than her. Harry could hold his own in a fight against a Vampire, and there was a reason that she wasn't making any moves to challenge Luna in a fight.

There are some bombs that should be left alone.

"Yeah. Jasper's waiting for us outside."

"I know." Harry let Bella wheel Luna outside, hanging back so that he could walk alongside Alice. "I also know that there's something going on between you and Bella, and I just wanted to warn you that its not a good idea to try and get between Luna and what she cares about."

"So I guessed." Alice smiled bitterly. "I'll see you later. Jasper wants to take you somewhere else. Bella and I will take care of Luna and make sure that she's comfortable."

Harry seemed surprised, and Alice hid a smirk. "Well…okay then, if you're sure. Be careful with the radiator, though- it can spit steam out of nowhere and burn you when you try to turn it on. Be sure to jiggle the knob twice."

"I'll keep you in mind. Now hurry up! Jasper's waiting for you."

He smiled and hugged her briefly before trotting over to where Jasper was leaning against the side of his car, hands in his pockets, waiting for him.

"Hey!"

Jasper silently opened the door to his car and ushered Harry inside. Slightly confused but not complaining at the gesture, Harry sat alone for a few moments as jasper circled the car and got in on the driver's side. He still didn't say anything, although he didn't look too upset.

"Relax, Harry." He murmured, reaching over and running his fingers along the open palm of Harry's hand. "I'm just taking us for a drive."

"Okay, okay, I'm just jittery from the three cups of coffee that I drank while we were waiting for the doctors to release Luna."

"I see." Jasper hummed and nodded, glancing away from the road to smile warmly at him. "Silly boy."

"Shut up, you, or you'll be sleeping alone."

Jasper grinned and sped up, whipping the car around the icy curves of the road. Harry gripped the edges of his seat, shrieking whenever he was positive that they were about to go flying off of the road.

Finally the car pulled to a stop, outside of town and in a section of the woods that Harry hadn't been to before, or if he had, had merely passed through. It was a stretch of road framed entirely by fir trees, all of which looked like mottled glass sculptures. Every inch of the trees was coated with early December ice, and the branches looked more like feathers than tree limbs. Eyes wide, he stepped out of the car when Jasper unlocked the doors and shivered from cold and wonder.

"This is…" He trailed off, adjectives failing him in view of the splendor of the forest. It was one of the few days that wasn't overcast, and a weak sun shone down on them from within a pale sky.

"It's my favorite part of the woods." Jasper confessed, coming to stand beside Harry. He dipped his head and pressed a kiss to his jaw line. "I wanted to show my favorite place to my favorite person."

Harry smiled helplessly, eyes as wide as they could go. "Thank you for sharing this with me. It's beautiful."

"Good, because I wanted to do this in a place that we both liked."

Turning, Harry caught Jasper reaching into his pocket for something. When he pulled his hand out, there was a small red box in it, made of some stiff material and covered with stamped leather.

His lips parted, but no words came out. What could he say?

Jasper wrapped a hand around him, pulling him close. He lightly kissed Harry's forehead, then on each eyelid, his nose, and finally he kissed his lips so lightly that Harry barely felt it. He pressed the box into his hand, closing his chilled fingers over it.

"Will you spend the rest of your life with me, and make me the happiest being on this planet?"

Choking with emotion, Harry stood on his toes and kissed him with everything he had. "Yes. And it's about damn time that you asked me!"

000

End chapter 43

Only one chapter after this, and it'll be an epilogue.


	44. Chapter 44

CHAPTER 44

They were crowded around the bed, the normally airy room heavy and solemn. The drapes were drawn, and for once the cheerful blue print of the fabric failed to inspire a single smile.

The focus point of the room was the figure on the bed, or what could be seen of it in the dim light. An appropriate power outage had occurred just moments before his passing, and candles were lit and spread as liberally as could be done safely around the room.

His face was in shadow, concealed by the heavy darkness of the bed hangings. One wrinkled hand was laid at rest along his side, but the other was hidden in the young hands of his husband. Jasper sat like a statue, hunched forward like a cripple, his eyes fixated on the floor. Dry gasping sobs were the only sounds in the room, because Harry had long out-lived all of his human friends, making it to the remarkable old age of 298 years, just 2 years short of his goal of 300.

Esme approached slowly, laying her hand on her son's shoulder. He didn't react, and his sobs didn't change their tempo.

She withdrew and returned to her place on the sofa set against the wall, between her husband and Emmett, who was nervously chewing on his knuckles. He looked pained, and Rosalie was as stone-faced as ever, despite the tender way that she ran her fingers through his hair. The sofa arm didn't show any strain from holding her weight.

Alice was the only one still standing, seemingly frozen against the door. She leaned against it, not trusting her legs to hold her up. They'd known that this day would come, and had in fact started expecting it over a hundred years ago despite Harry's protests of his magical heritage and the benefits of a longer life that those genes supplied, but now that it'd actually come, she couldn't believe it. Harry was a part of their family, and was a remarkably good traveler even in his twilight years so he remained with them no matter where they went to set up new homes for themselves.

They held vigil for two solid days until Rosalie got hungry and left, followed by her husband. Carlisle and Esme were the next to go, and then it was just the three of them.

She still didn't move for another hour or so, limbs deadened from standing still for so long. All of the candles burned out on the first day, so she felt her way around the unfamiliar hotel furniture.

Finally she reached him, wincing as the smell of Harry's slowly rotting corpse hit her nostrils with more force than she'd grown used to. "Jasper?" she laid her hand on top of his head, but quickly moved it to his spine instead when she realized that that was the same affectionate caress that Harry used to greet his husband with until his arms grew to weak to raise his hand.

"I…" the sound was hoarse and didn't sound anything like Jasper normally did.

"It's okay, don't talk. It's only that…well; we need to make the funeral arrangements. It will look bad if we wait much longer." She bit her lip when he stiffened, his hand clenching down around Harry's lifeless one.

"I understand. But I choose to remain here until the mortician arrives to take the body away, if you don't mind."

"O-of course, Jasper. I'm going now."

He didn't acknowledge her again, staring at a point just beyond the headboard.

Swallowing the bitter taste in her mouth, she left quietly. When she was gone, Jasper moved woodenly over to the nearest candle, dug some matches out of his pocket, and lit it. He carried it over to the bed, and its rays at last punctured the darkness that hung like a shroud around Harry's face.

He flinched.

Harry's face was whiter than the bed sheets, and the twisted in the agony of death.

"I love you." He whispered, running his hand over the sparse fuzz that was all that remained of Harry's once-thick hair. "I always did, and I always will, even now."

And somewhere, wherever his soul was, Harry said the same words back, just as he always did when they were together.

000

End Resurfacing

God, I hope that that didn't utterly suck. Review now that its over and tell me what you think of the finished project, please!


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